Triple A

Colombian water company, semi-privatised in 1996 and taken over in November 2001 by Madrid municipally-owned Canal de Isabel II and Valencia-based privately-owned Tecvasa. The two companies acquired a 75% stake in Triple A's majority shareholder INASSA - Canal held 75% of the 75% equity stake and Tecvasa 25% - and became the major shareholders of Triple A. Tecvasa had previously been a parter to Triple A in its international operations (Venezuela, Santo Domingo and Ecuador).

In 1996, as a public-private company, Triple A was 50.00049841% publicly-owned and 49.99950159% privately-owned).

In October 1996, Inassa had acquired a substantial stake in and became operator of Triple A. In June 2000,
Triple A bought Aguas de Barcelona's 20.2% stake in INASSA. As a result, Triple A repurchased Aguas de Barcelona's 13% stake in Triple A itself.

Triple A provides water services to Barranquilla, the fourth largest city in Colombia, and operates in other Colombian cities and other Latin American countries.

It set up a number of joint ventures with Valencia-based Tecvasa and won a management contract in Venezuela in August 2001. The contract covers 3.5m inhabitants in the state of Zulia, incluiding the city of Maracaibo.

As of November 2001, Triple A served a total of some 9 million people in Colombia and internationally.

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