China's State Grid gains controlling stake in Brazil's CPFL

A State Grid employee works on an ultra-high-voltage transmission construction in Huainan, Anhui province. [Photo for China Daily by Song Weixing]

BEIJING - The State Grid Corporation of China, the world's largest utility company, announced Tuesday that it has concluded a deal for a 54.64-percent stake in Brazil's largest power distributor CPFL Energia SA.

The value of the deal will total approximately 14.19 billion reais ($4.49 billion), according to a CPFL Energia statement.

The deal will further boost the Chinese giant's presence in Brazil's market, expanding its businesses to power transmission, distribution, new energy power generation and electricity sales, and bring State Grid's new energy power generation technology and management experience to Brazil, State Grid said in a statement on its website.

State Grid is present in the Brazilian market, where it operates 10,000 kilometers of power transmission lines. In April, its subsidiary State Grid Brazil Holding won bids for two power transmission lines around the Paranatinga in Mato Grosso in western Brazil.