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International Water Holdings B.V. (IWH) was established as a holding under Dutch law on 8 December 1999 as a 50/50 venture between Bechtel Enterprises Holdings, Inc (USA) and Edison S.p.A. (Italy). It was registered at the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce on 22 December 1999.
IWH is pursuing privatised water and wastewater treatment projects world-wide. At the end of 2000, IWH was working on eight projects in Asia, central Europe, Australia and the United Kingdom. By February 2001, IWH had made two more acquisitions: the Tallinn's (Estonia) main water supplier, AS Tallinna Vesi (EUR 42.6m) and the Ecuadorian water supplier Interagua CA Ltda (EUR 10m).
All these projects are organised through a "strategic partnership" between International Water Limited (100% owned by IWH) and the international branch of the privatised UK water company United Utilities International. A graphical representation of this stategic partnership construction is available at the website of the Slovak branch of International Water.
According to the files of the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce, the following individuals are managing directors of International Water Holdings B.V.:
International Water Holdings and its 15 subsidiaries are letterbox firms set up to profit from low Dutch corporate tax rates. The letterbox firms are administered by the trust agency Intra Beheer BV, since April 2001 a 100% daughter of ING Trust.
One of the IWH subsidiaries is of particular interest in the Cochabamba case: International Water (Tunari) B.V. (KvK nr. 34125384). This IWH subsidiary is directed by Didier Quint. On 25 April 2000, Mr. Quint shortly entered the public arena when he sent an e-mail to Jim Shultz of the Democracy Centre, containing many details on the Aguas de Tunari withdrawal from Bolivia on 25 April 2000.
Contact: XminusY Solidarity Fund
Keizersgracht 132 / 1015 CW Amsterdam / tel: +31-20-6279661 / e-mail: kh@xminy.nl