(Reuters) - Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Saturday he had nationalized four power companies, including a subsidiary of France's GDF Suez, in his drive to tighten state control over the impoverished economy.
Morales, a close ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, nationalized Bolivia's key natural gas industry soon after first taking office in 2006 and has since taken control of several utility companies as well as the Andean nation's biggest smelter and top telecommunications firm.
"We're here ... to nationalize all the hydroelectric plants that were owned by the state before, to comply with the new constitution of the Bolivian state. Basic services cannot be a private business. We're recovering the energy, the light, for all Bolivians," he said in the central Cochabamba region.
Morales said the state now controls 80 percent of electricity generation in Bolivia and was aiming for complete government control over the sector.
The decree read aloud by presidential spokesman Ivan Canelas said the state was taking control of the stakes that private investors held in four power companies, including Corani, Guaracachi and Valle Hermoso, the country's biggest generating companies.
They emerged in the 1990s following the privatization of the state National Electricity Company (ENDE) and account for about half of Bolivia's electricity market.
Corani is 50 percent owned by Inversiones Econergy Bolivia S.A., a subsidiary of France's GDF Suez. GDF Suez was not immediately available for comment.
Guaracachi is 50 percent owned by Britain's Rurelec PLC, while Valle Hermoso is run by a Bolivian private firm called the Bolivian Generating Group.
In Corani, Guaracachi and Valle Hermoso, half the shares were held by private investors with the rest held by the Bolivian state.
The fourth power company nationalized on Saturday was ELFEC, which supplies the central Cochabamba region and is controlled by workers and Bolivian investors.
Morales said the Bolivian government tried, but failed, to convince investors to sell the shares the state needed to have a controlling stake.
"It's the state's obligation to compensate investors for their assets ... We made an effort to reach an agreement with the private, multinational companies, but they were unwilling to reach an accord," said Morales.
Several companies have launched legal action over the compensation they were offered as part of the nationalization.
(Reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Eduardo Garcia. Editing by Simon Gardner and Eric Beech)
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