By Javier Mozzo
MEDELLIN, Colombia (Reuters) - Empresas Publicas de Medellin, Colombia's largest public services company, said on Wednesday it will seek water and electric energy deals as part of overseas expansion plans to bring its annual income to $5 billion over the next eight years.
EPM Director General Juan Felipe Gaviria told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Colombia that the company saw Panama as a possible platform for expanding in the energy generation sector with other opportunities in South America.
The company, which offers integrated public services to Medellin city and its surrounding municipalities, has a current annual income of around $1.5 billion.
EPM has began taking steps in Ecuador and Peru, for example, with its recent move to seek a water deal in Lima and sees opportunities in Central America once an electric energy link is established between Colombia and Panama.
"Central America is one of the largest opportunities once there is a connection between Colombia and Panama, which we should have around 2010 or 2011," Gaviria said.
"It is probable we will have to do it with partners as I believe you cannot enter into a foreign country alone... with overseas investments one has to be very careful," he said.
EPM is currently involved in one of the most important Colombian infrastructure projects, the construction of the Porce III hydroelectricity plant with 660 megawatts of capacity at a cost of $1 billion.
Gaviria said he expects two other projects Porce IV and Pescadero-Ituango by 2020 to bring more than 3,000 megawatts of additional power generation.
EPM, owned by Medellin city, was founded in 1955 and provides energy, water, pipeline, subscription television, telephone and internet services to the city.
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