Starting this Tuesday, the Madrid Stock Exchange hosts the celebration of the 26th edition of the Latibex Forum which brings together more than 40 Latin American and Spanish companies with interests in the region. One of the panels held this Wednesday included the participation of José Olivé, CFO of the Cox Group, the last company to make the leap to the Spanish market last Friday.
The financial director of the energy company has indicated Latin America as one of the main places on which the company has focused and, more specifically, in Chile, Peru and Central America. Although, beyond this region, he has also pointed out North Africa and South Africa as other markets that Cox is focusing on.
The Spanish company also locates their desalination business as one of the main activities they can promote in these regions. “Morocco, for example, has a very ambitious desalination plan and hopes to have a desalination capacity of 3-4 million cubic meters per day,” explained Olivé. The development of this part of its business has led Cox to build the world’s largest desalination plant Ras Al-Khair in Saudi Arabia. In fact, as Olivé explained, 25% of the desalination in the Arab country is carried out by Cox. “African countries have spectacular water plans: Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Morocco… In the next 12-24 months there will be global public tenders for 20 million cubic meters per day for desalination and water treatment,” he said. Olivé pointed out.
And, it has been, precisely, this water business that has attracted the greatest number of investors to the company according to its CFO: “What I liked the most was the topic of water and how you combine water with energy.. With every project you win, you are getting a captive energy project. You are taking away the water, the maintenance of that water and the captive project of the energy and the maintenance of that energy.” In this sense, Cox has brought in Amea Powers, one of the investors that has entered the company with the IPO. This is an Emirati group that has a presence in North Africa. According to Olivé, they seek to combine Cox’s experience in the water with Amea’s roots in the African continent.
Finally, and in relation to the OPS, Olivé explained that the greatest concern of investors has come with the momentum. “Almost no company has gone public this year and those that have gone public have seen a significant drop, not to mention the companies that have ended up withdrawing their operations,” he explained.
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