Brookfield Buys Odebrecht Ambiental for USD 890 million

10/21/2016 - 10h25

Canadian fund manager Brookfield has bought 70% of Odebrecht Ambiental, a health and hygiene subsidiary of Odebrecht which was responsible for 2.6% of the group's total income last year.

The acquisition cost the Canadian company a total of R$2.8 billion (USD 890 billion).

Odebrecht Ambiental also sold its shares in Cetrel and CSA (Atlantic Steel Company) for R$800 million (USD 255 million).

Its stake in Cetrel, a company which treats industrial waste from the Petrochemical plant in Camaçari (BA), was acquired by Petrochemical company Braskem, today the main company in the Odebrecht group. The German company ThyssenKrupp bought CSA.

The announcement of the sale of these businesses will be made on Friday (21). Created in 2008, Odebrecht Ambiental has 6 thousand employees and makes about R$2.5 billion (USD 800 million) per year.

Among its major sources of income are the water and sewage providers for the metropolitan region of Recife. The company is also active in Rio de Janeiro, has 12 service providers in the State of Sao Paulo, and a good deal of business in Tocantins.

As the main group under fire in Operation Car Wash, Odebrecht has been in financial difficulties since last year.

It put many of its companies and subsidiaries on the market in an attempt to reduce its massive debt, which weighs in today at around R$100 billion (USD31.8 billion).

	Reprodução/TV Globo
	Odebrecht Ambiental has 6 thousand employees and makes about USD 800 billion per year

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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