Manuel Cáceres, ACCIONA Peru Country Director

How do you assess your experience in Peru?

I came here in August 2013 and the first impression I had was of a country with lots of possibilities in which we didn’t yet have a big presence. The first objective was to inform about what kind of Company we are, our broad experience and the diversification we have, to showcase everything that makes us, not only competitive, but much more attractive to local companies looking for partners for big projects. This approach was fundamental in positioning ourselves locally as a strategic partner for other big companies, local or international, already installed in Peru, which lack our experience in sectors such as hospitals, concessions or water treatment. In the past two years, we have won projects and our position is more solid. ACCIONA Agua has five projects underway, Construction has the two mentioned earlier, and Ingeniería has won various supervision contracts. An example is our current participation in the bidding process for two of the most important projects that will be offered in Peru this year, which are: the Cabecera Hydraulic Works Project (USD 400 million), entered by ACCIONA Agua and Construction in association with two other companies, and; the Longitudinal Sierra Road Concession in which we are participating 50% with a local partner. It has a planned investment of over USD 400 million.

These contracts are important in supporting our long-term commitment to Peru…

We are completely established in the local market because we are a company that wants to be here in the long term. This is assuring for both public and private clients. Also, today, ACCIONA Peru has 128 workers, 80% of whom are local. Sustained and stable growth in the Peruvian economy has meant the country is stable for investors, was unknown until recently. This has seen a substantial increase in private and foreign investment that, along with the lack of existing infrastructure, has elicited a clear commitment for PPP and CPI (cofinanced private initiative) projects.

These PPPs make up the big project portfolio that is being put out to tender and for which ACCIONA’s Agua and Construction divisions will be bidding both in international consortia and with local partners. The CPIs respond to a concession model that has been encouraged by the Peruvian government and which is a very interesting solution for competing for projects, mainly in the health, education and hydro sectors. CPIs consist of a private company managing the PPP, in one of these sectors, from the start of the project in conjunction with the final client and through previously negotiated financing that is always 100% of the investment. ACCIONA Agua and ACCIONA Infrastructure are participating in six different CPIs at the time of writing, all of them with local partners.

Sustained and stable growth in the Peruvian economy has made the country newly stable for investors

Which projects has ACCIONA Agua undertaken in Peru over the years?

In 2000, it built the Talara Refinery Desalination Plant, which supplies water to the system for refining processes and is still operating. Recently, the company also completed the construction of Arequipa Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) for 150,000 people and will perform the operation and maintenance of the plant over the next three years. In both cases, ACCIONA Agua demonstrated its qualified experience in the most competitive technologies for this type of project. In 2015, ACCIONA Agua has won three different contracts with SEDAPAL, the public body for the Management of Services and Maintenance and Operation of Water in Lima.

What do we bring to the desalination process here?

There are many opportunities in this sector in Peru and in desalination most of them come from the private sector, mainly mining. We consider the mining sector to be an extremely important niche market (it is the most important in the private sector in Peru), and with our recent experience in Chile, where we solved part of the water stress problem in the mining industry through desalination, we are clearly well positioned at the moment to pick up these mining projects.

Which projects is ACCIONA Construction working on in Peru at the moment?

We are concluding (in association with local companies) the construction of the biggest hospital in the city of Huancayo. It has a surface area of 25,000 m2 and a capacity of 175 beds, with an initial cost of around 42 million euros. We also won 100% of the contract for the new prison at Pucallpa, in the Amazon rain forest region of Ucayali. This project involves the extension and restoration of the existing prison, with the extension representing a surface area of 19,000 m2. The project will allow the prison to increase its capacity to house approximately 1,300 inmates and is worth 24 million euros.

15 YEARS IN ACCIONA

Technical Architect, Executive MBA, Master in Building Restoration, Manuel Cáceres joined ACCIONA’s Construction business back in 2000 in Portugal. Since then, he has had a long international career in the Infrastructure division. In 2002, he was head of works for two of the stations in the Hato Rey project in Puerto Rico. He returned to Spain in 2003 as head of works in Malaga and two more as Department Director for Malaga and Melilla. Later, he moved to Pamplona where he fulfilled the functions of Department Director for Navarre-La Rioja between 2009 and 2011. In 2011, he was made Department Director in Brazil and two years later arrived in Peru as Country Director.

ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation in Peru

The ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation in Peru began the Light at Home program in 2008 which has succeeded in taking electricity in the form of photovoltaic panels to more than 4,000 families and 16,000 people in isolated rural villages unconnected to the grid.

The Foundation aims in future to continue collaborating with disadvantaged communities in the region of Cajamarca and plans to install the same model in neighboring regions.

Also read ACCIONA in Peru