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Antofagasta to sell water business to Colombia's EPM for $965 mln

Reuters - UK Focus

(Updates with share price, market commentary)

SANTIAGO, April 23 (Reuters) - Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc (Other OTC: ANFGF - news) said it had agreed to sell its water utility business Aguas de Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) (Adasa) for $965 million to Colombia's Empresas Publicas de Medellin, boosting the London-listed firm's share price.

Adasa supplies drinking water and water treatment services to 162,000 clients in northern Chile, including the mining-centred towns of Antofagasta and Calama, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

"This will allow us to focus our efforts and investments on new mining projects, especially in the Antofagasta region," said Chief Executive Officer Diego Hernandez.

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Antofagasta's shares were up 4.7 percent at 1459 GMT, outpacing peers such as Rio Tinto Plc (LSE: RIO.L - news) and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) Plc.

The sale of the water utility business "took the market by surprise" but the valuation looks reasonable, said a London-based analyst, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

"There's a track record of returning cash to shareholders ... or the money could be used for organic growth or to look at M&A opportunities, when (copper) prices are more depressed," said the analyst.

Colombia's EPM is a utilities firm with businesses throughout Central America and South America. (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)