Privatization of Copasa is completed in a ceremony at B3

Ceremony at B3 concludes Copasa privatization process
Gil Leonardi/ Imprensa MG
The privatization process of Companhia de Saneamento de Minas Gerais (Copasa) was concluded this Tuesday (16), during a ceremony at the Brazilian stock exchange, B3, in São Paulo. The ceremony marked the delivery of shares to buyers and payment to the state.
In total, 171,113,881 shares of the state-owned company were sold at a cost of R$49.03 each, which means that R$8.38 billion will be deposited in MG's coffers.
✅ Click here to follow the g1 Minas channel on WhatsApp
Equatorial, selected as a reference investor, became Copasa's largest shareholder, with 30% of the total capital. The group acquired 114,075,921 shares, corresponding to 66.67% of the offer (R$ 5.59 billion).
There was a possibility that an extra lot, of up to 19,035,730 shares, would also be made available, but this did not happen.
Now on g1
The state, which held 50.03% of the company's share capital (190,249,612 shares common shares), now has 5.03% (19,135,731 shares).
The slice includes a golden share, a special class preferred share that gives the state Executive veto power over certain matters, such as changing the name and headquarters of the company.
Perfin, which was already a shareholder in Copasa, increased the volume of shares with the purchase of 1,077,500 ordinary shares, increasing its stake in the company from 15.25% to 20.11%.
In total, institutional investors were left with 10.5% of the company's capital, with a financial volume of R$1.96 billion. Retail investors now hold 4.5% of the share capital, with a turnover of R$ 838.9 million.
Remember
The privatization of Copasa was definitively approved by the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais (ALMG) on December 17, 2025 and sanctioned by former governor Romeu Zema (Novo) on the 23rd of the same month.
The sale was always a plan of the politician, who said that the measure was necessary for the modernization of the company and the attraction of investments.
The deputies who voted against the proposal stated that privatization should lead to an increase in tariffs and precariousness of the service, in addition to layoffs. Copasa serves 636 municipalities in Minas Gerais.
The law determines that the resources from the sale of the company be used to pay off the state's debt with the Union or fulfill obligations related to the State Debt Full Payment Program (Propag).
The text also authorizes part of the money to be deposited in a state basic sanitation fund.
Most viewed videos on g1 Minas:

Source: G1