Rousseff-Proof Sabesp Soars as Buy Calls Grow: Corporate Brazil

Brazil’s push to cut electricity rates is driving investors out of power companies and into water utilities, making Cia. de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo the second best-performing stock among regional peers.

Sabesp, as the Americas’ largest publicly traded water utility by market value is known, posted a total return of 76 percent this year before today, the second-most among 13 publicly traded water utilities in the Americas with a market value of at least $500 million. Eletropaulo Metropolitana SA, Brazil’s biggest electricity distributor, dropped 44 percent. President Dilma Rousseff on Sept. 11 unveiled a plan to force power companies to cut rates by as much as 28 percent.