Significant merging of all the companies dedicated to industrial waste management

Befesa Medio Ambiente establishes “Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales”

·  Befesa will set up a Market Intelligence Portal

·  Befesa has signed two significant R&D agreements with the Superior Research Development Council (CSIC)

·  All Befesa’s production centres will hold Environmental Certificates prior to the end of 2004

·  Befesa intends to invest 60 million euros in its Waste Vitrification Plant in Nerva

Seville, 12th June 2003.- Befesa Medio Ambiente, an Environmental subsidiary of Abengoa, has completed the merging of its Spanish companies dedicated to industrial waste management. The new company, which will be operative as of from 1st July, will be called Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales, S.A. (Befesa Gri).

The new company will be organised under a structure based on one general management and four departments: Industrial and Strategic Development, Commercial and Logistics, Administrative and Financial, and Marketing.

According to Javier Molina, Befesa’s Chairman, “with this integration we want to improve the services available to current and future clients and also consolidate Befesa’s trade-name as that of leader in the provision of environmental services. Another of the immediate benefits clients will be able to avail of is personalisation of management, and finally, the unification of management and commercialisation criteria”.

The companies that have been merged are: Cartera Ambiental S.A, Complejo Medioambiental de Andalucía S.A., Tratamientos del Mediterráneo S.L., Comercial Sear S.L., Aprovechamiento y Valorización de Residuos S.L., Centro de Areas, Reciclado y Tratamientos Ambientales Cartamb, S.L., Procesos y Gestión Ambiental S.A., Tria Equip y Gestió Ambiental S.L., and Suministros Petrolíferos del Mediterráneo, S.L.

Befesa Gri will exploit a unique personalised management tool which will be called the Market Intelligence Portal. This has been developed by Telvent Outsourcing, another Abengoa subsidiary, and it will enable savings as regards management costs, and facilitate real-time information regarding treated wastes, sales figures, treatment costs, etc. Moreover, a specific service will be on offer for each individual client. Javier Molina says that “a company has to offer its clients a little more every day, maintain closer relationships with them and make operations easier for them”.

The establishment of a Marketing department is a clear sign that Befesa wants to identify the needs of its current clients and get to know their future needs. Befesa Gri’s sales force is present on the Iberian Peninsula and includes more than thirty persons with a high technical profile who will focus on providing clients with integral services.

Befesa Gri foresees billing 43 million euros in 2003, with an Ebitda of 25%. In 2003, 11,000 tons of waste will receive Physicochemical Treatment, 160,000 tons of non-hazardous waste will be stored, 185,000 tons of hazardous waste will also be stored, 125,000 tons will be stabilised/inerted and 40,000 tons will be valorised and recycled.

On the other hand, Befesa has, within its different activity areas, treated a total of 1,170,000 tons in 2002, of which 60% has been valorised and recycled.

Among the priority objectives set by Befesa is that of having all its production centres certified in accordance with an environmental management system. The Centres in Nerva and Palos are currently certified in accordance with ISO 14000, and it is foreseen that they be adapted to the EMAS next year. The Ajalvir Centre is the only Industrial Waste Batching Centre, in Spain, registered under the EMAS system. The rest of the facilities operated by Befesa will be certified during the years 2003 and 2004. “To have all the production centres certified is a great challenge, but we are getting there. All the facilities will be certified by the end of 2004”, Javier Molina says.

One of Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales’s priorities is to support Research and Innovation activities. The most representative projects under way are: The Harnessing and re-use of hazardous wastes of an inorganic nature, with the University of Huelva and the Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC). The use of by-products to stabilise potentially poisonous elements (sexvalent chrome), with the University of Cartagena; and a Pilot Plant to prepare replacement solid fuels using hazardous wastes of an organic nature, with the Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC)

Befesa Gri’s Strategic Plan.

Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales’s Strategic Plan is focused on adapting its treatment facilities to the new normatives, completing the improvement of facilities, and the commissioning of new hazardous waste management facilities in the Basque Country, Castilla León, Andalusia and Catalonia.

The table here-below provides a summary of the investments foreseen for the 2003 to 2006 period, in hazardous and non-hazardous waste management activities:


Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales’s main bet for forthcoming years will be on its Waste Vitrification Plant, with a foreseen investment of 60 million euros being made in the facilities currently occupied by Complejo Medioambiental de Andalucía, in Nerva. The project, which is under way, requires the company to exploit clear waste valorisation technologies and adapt itself to the normatives that will come into force next year, which will not permit the management of certain


wastes destined for dumping. According to Javier Molina, “an investment of 60 million euros such as that which we are going to make in Nerva is very significant for a company such as ours, but it re-affirms our trust in waste valorisation and goes beyond the most demanding normative that currently exists.

The capacity of the future facilities will be 50,000 tons/year of industrial waste, by means of plasma technology, which will enable the recovery of inorganic metals, as well as the gases, generating sufficient electric energy for the process itself and surplus energy to be sold to the local electricity company.

Another of Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales’s key activities will be the commissioning of facilities and/or purchasing of facilities dedicated to non-hazardous waste management. During the course of 2003, a Non-hazardous Waste Classification Plant will come into operation in Madrid, and it is foreseen that four more facilities will come into operation in 2004, in Andalusia, Castilla León, Aragón and Levante.

New Markets.-

Befesa aspires to being present and active in Portugal and Latin America. It is the first industrial waste import company in Portugal and has formed alliances with Portuguese companies to establish itself in the country and provide an “in situ” service, through the setting up of an integrated industrial waste valorisation complex.

In Latin America, it maintains its presence in Argentina, through the company Borg Austral, which possesses an Environmental Industrial Waste Treatment Complex. It has completed the construction of the Andino Environmental Complex, in Peru, which is located 60 km from Lima. This allows the company to offer integral management services to said country’s industrial sector.

Befesa intends to strengthen its investment and growth policy in other environmental sectors related to its other activities, specifically, in the industrial waste management and industrial cleaning sectors, According to Javier Molina, Befesa’s Managing Director, “the priority is to invest and grow in environmental sectors related to our activity, such as industrial waste management”.

Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales has a workforce of 220. Twenty per cent are university graduates and five per cent are technical personnel and, during the course of 2003, a good number of graduates from different universities will do their occupational training courses in Befesa. The continuous training of all employees is complemented with specific courses that are given for each activity sector, from courses in chemical product handling, normatives regarding the transporting of hazardous merchandise, safety in the handling of tools, to management skills for intermediate level teams and supervisors. More than 40 courses were given in 2002 focused on different profiles within Befesa Gestión de Residuos Industriales’s workforce.

Abengoa is an industrial and technology company listed on the Stock Exchange, with a capitalisation of more than 500 million euros (31/12/2002). It provides solutions for Sustainable Development, the Information and Knowledge Society and the Creation of Infrastructures. In 2002, its sales volume exceeded 1,500 million euros and profits were 43.5 million euros. It currently operates in four large fields of activity: Bio-energy, where it is the world’s second bio-ethanol producer; Environmental Services, where it is the leader in Europe in some of the industrial waste market segments; Information Technologies, where it is one of the key players at international level, with operations in Europe, Latin America and Asia; and Industrial Engineering and Construction, where it is the leader in Spain and America. During the first quarter of the current financial year, the company’s sales volume surpassed 411 million euros, with a net result of 11.2 million euros and an Ebitda greater than 45 million euros.

Befesa is Abengoa’s leading company in the Environmental Services business sector. It is listed on the Stock Exchange and closed the 2002 financial year with a capitalisation of more than 393 million euros. Its sales reached 403 million, which is a 10.4 per cent increase. Its profits were 16.2 million euros (a 9.4 per cent increase).

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