Madrid, October 20, 2005.- The Geida consortium formed by the Spanish groups Abengoa, ACS y Sacyr Vallehermoso, has been awarded the design, construction, financing and 25-year operation project for the Tlemcem-Hounaine seawater desalination plant, in Algeria.

The Temclem-Hounaine plant, to be constructed in the proximities of the city of Oran, to the west of the North Africa country, close to the border with Morocco, requires a 180 million dollar investment. The plant’s treatment capacity will be 150,000 cubic meters of desalinated seawater per day. The construction works will be completed in the first half of 2008.

In 2004, the Geida Consortium, formed by Befesa and Codesa, from Abengoa; Cobra-Tedagua, from ACS; and Sadyt, from Sacyr Vallehermoso, was awarded contracts to construct and operate, over twenty-five years, two other desalination plants in the Algerian localities of Skikda and Beni Saf, both of which are now at the execution phase.

Expansión Exterior, in which the ICEX and BBVA have an interest, is acting as Geida’s financial advisor for the three operations.

Once the three desalination plants are in operation, for which an overall investment of some 460 million dollars is required, the Spanish consortium’s installed production capacity in Algeria will be 400,000 cubic meters per day, which will be utilized to provide drinking water for a population of more than two million.

Revenue of 2,300 million dollars

Revenue from the three Geida-constructed and operated plants over their twenty-five year operational life is expected to be in excess of 2,300 million dollars. The Algerian government has undertaken an ambitious desalination plan to alleviate the country’s water shortage. The short-term objective is to produce a million cubic meters of desalinated water per day, which has resulted in the Geida Consortium becoming the leading operator in this market.

Befesa, Abengoa’s Environmental Services subsidiary, focuses on providing environmental services for industry and on the construction of environmental infrastructures. It is a listed company and closed 2004 with a treasury stock of more than 393 million euro. In 2004, Befesa managed a total of 1,374,000 tons of industrial wastes, a twelve percent increase on the previous year (www.befesa.es)

Abengoa, a listed industrial and technology company with treasury stock in excess of 1,200 million euro, provides solutions for Sustainable Development, the Information and Knowledge Society, and the Creation of Infrastructures. It currently operates in four large sectors; Bioethanol, in which it is the world’s number two bioethanol producer; Environmental Services, in which it is European leader in segments of the industrial waste market; Information Technologies, in which it is one of the main role players at international level with operations in Europe, the Americas, and Asia; and Industrial Engineering and Construction, in which it is leader in Spain and Latin America (www.abengoa.com)