Empresa Eléctrica Pilmaiquén S.A.

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What it is

Pilmaiquén is a Chile-based company dedicated to the generation, transmission and distribution of hydroelectric energy — clean, river-fed electricity flowing from the Pilmaiquén River basin on the border of Chile’s Los Lagos and Los Ríos regions, roughly 900 km south of Santiago.

In 2015 its acquirer, Norwegian state energy company Statkraft, took over the firm with projects and operations in the Pilmaiquén basin; Statkraft now operates the Rucatayo run-of-river power plant and is also constructing the Los Lagos hydropower project. Rucatayo has a generating capacity of 56.7 MW.

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Who owns it

The Norwegian state company Statkraft acquired 98.2% of Pilmaiquén’s shares, paying a total of CLP 151,644.75 million (US$164 mn) in the deal. Statkraft is itself 100% owned by the Norwegian government, making this a foreign state company controlling a Chilean listed entity.

Before the takeover, a group of shareholders representing 70.47% of the share capital had signed a conditional sale agreement with Statkraft Chile. The remaining free float — less than 2% of shares — continues to trade on the Bolsa de Santiago under the ticker PILMAIQUEN.SN, making this one of Chile’s most thinly floated listed securities.

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Who runs it

Not published: the names of Pilmaiquén’s Gerente General (CEO) and board chair are not disclosed on the CMF corporate-governance filings page (cmfchile.cl, RUT 96511810-1, pestania=1) or on Statkraft Chile’s public corporate pages at the time of writing. Statkraft Chile’s wider Chilean operation lists Marco Antonio Vargas as Gerente General of Statkraft Chile Inversiones Eléctricas Ltda., the direct parent vehicle, though Pilmaiquén’s own statutory officers are not separately named in available CMF filings.

Chile’s Ley 18.046 on corporations requires public companies to disclose their board of directors; the CMF register for Pilmaiquén (pestania=1) exists but its officer data was not rendered in the accessible page content at the time of this writing.

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The money, in plain words

Net profit for 2024 reached CLP 48,750 million (US$53 mn) (approximately USD 52.6m at the prevailing exchange rate), a fall of CLP 38,525 million (US$42 mn) — down 44.1% — compared with the CLP 87,274 million (US$94 mn) earned in 2023. That is a sharp drop in a single year, driven primarily by lower energy prices in Chile’s electricity spot market.

Not published: Pilmaiquén’s full 2024 revenue figure (ingresos por ventas) is not extractable from the CMF filing URL returned in searches — the Análisis Razonado document (cmfchile.cl, filed for year-end 31 December 2024) could not be opened directly. CMF rules under NCG 30 require every listed issuer to file audited annual financial statements; the filing exists in the CMF system but its PDF was inaccessible to direct fetch at time of writing.

Net margin and return on equity therefore cannot be calculated here. What is confirmed: capital investment (CAPEX) in 2024 totalled CLP 107,148 million (~USD 115.6m), up from CLP 94,601 million (US$102 mn) in 2023 — a company spending more than twice its net profit on building new capacity.

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What it is doing now

The Los Lagos hydroelectric plant — a run-of-river facility on the Pilmaiquén River — is 96% built, yet cannot generate a single kilowatt-hour of commercial power. Chile’s Supreme Court ordered the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales (CMN) to conduct an indigenous consultation process after unexpected archaeological finds during construction; the process has still not been completed, even though the project’s environmental clearance dates back to June 2009.

The company says the Los Lagos investment has cost USD 173 million, with USD 50 million in additional overruns during the three years of delay. Three years after the Supreme Court ruling, only the first of five consultation stages had been completed, concluding on 22 November 2024.

The plant has become locally known as the “central fantasma” — the ghost power station.

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What to watch

• Indigenous consultation timeline. The project, which had expected to begin injecting energy into Chile’s grid in the first half of 2025, remains blocked until the CMN completes its consultation — a process that could take up to three more years. Resolution — in either direction — is the single biggest swing factor for Pilmaiquén’s future cash generation.
• Spot electricity prices. Rucatayo sells into Chile’s spot market; the 44% collapse in net profit in 2024 underscores how exposed the company is to price swings it cannot control.
• Statkraft’s Chile strategy. Statkraft recently acquired three wind power projects in Chile totalling 110 MW of planned capacity, signalling an intent to stay and diversify — but Pilmaiquén’s blocked plant represents a serious test of that commitment.
• Free float and liquidity. With less than 2% of shares in public hands, the stock trades with minimal liquidity; any move toward a full delisting or buyout of the remaining float by Statkraft would be a significant event for remaining shareholders.

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This is news, not investment advice.