Buenos Aires water company privatized after 20 years of state management

A group of Argentine, Brazilian, and Dutch firms acquired 90% of the shares of the public water and sanitation utility company Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos (in Spanish, AySA), the government announced on Thursday. The bid in the tender was US$340 million. The news means that the company, which provides running water service to the 14 million people living in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, will return to private hands after being managed by the state for 20 years. In 2006, then-president Néstor Kirchner rescinded the contract with the French group Suez, which had operated it since the…