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In 2006, then-president Nstor Kirchner rescinded the contract with the French group Suez, which had operated it since the 1993 privatization under the name Aguas Argentinas.

The current concession contract is valid for 30 years and can be extended for an additional decade. The schedule calls for the signing before the end of the year, while the new operator is scheduled to have full control of the operation between January and February 2027.

The price Although the bid exceeded the other finalist’s offer by nearly 20%, the figure is significantly lower than the US$500 million the economy ministry had projected to get.

The operation, however, remains one of the largest privatizations carried out by the Milei administration and the most profitable to date for the libertarian government.

While the most sizable privatization to date was the sale of 70% of gas provider Metrogas to power company Edenor (US$780 million), those funds belong to oil company YPF as the majority shareholder of Metrogas. 

In the case of AySA, the state receives the entirety of the sale.

In a tweet announcing the results, the economy ministry called AySA a model of administrative dysfunction, claiming that the company received treasury transfers for more than US$13.4 billion between 2006 and 2023. 

Even with this funding, the ministry added, one-third of the concession area still lacks access to drinking water and sewage.

The new water managers in Buenos Aires The group that won the bid is led by Argentine firm Rowing SA, an engineering company with more than three decades of experience in infrastructure projects in Argentina. 

Another local company involved is Transclor SA. Since 2009, it has been the sole supplier of aluminum polychloride that AySA uses to purify water.

Brazilian company Arcos Saneamento e Participaes, part of the Equipav Group, will run technical operations. The firm has operated water and sewage services since 2010 and serves more than 39 million people in 15 Brazilian states.

Dutch firm PHX Aqua AR B.V., based in the Netherlands, is also part of the group.

In addition to the price, the winners must invest US$1.9 billion in the first five years and US$15 billion over the 30-year concession, which expires in 2056.

The goals for the first decade anticipate that water coverage will increase from the current 75% to 79%, while sewage coverage will increase from 64% to 65%.

The ERAS water and sanitation regulatory agency called for a public hearing on October 26 with the goal of updating the AySA utility prices.

According to a UBA observatory on utility bill prices, the average water bill without subsidies in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area was around AR$43,000 (US$26 at the official rate) in August 2026.  

Recent AySA projections state that 60% of residential users would see an average increase of 22%, while another 20% would keep their bills unchanged. The remaining 20% would receive an average reduction of 15%.

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