AES Corp. / AES

About AES Corp.

4300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22203
www.aes.com | 703-522-1315 | Founded: 1981

Industry: Energy | Category: Top 100 Companies

This year, AES reduced earnings in 2002, 2003 and 2004 by hundreds of millions of dollars, in part because of pre-2002 errors in its accounting of deferred income taxes. When the problem came to light in 2005, AES performed detailed reconciliations at its subsidiaries. That effort uncovered other unrelated accounting errors. In January, AES said its past results are now correct and that the restatement did not affect its cash flow.
In March, AES said it would delay release of its 2005 earnings because it had devoted so much time and resources to the restatement that it could not complete its 2005 audit. It released its full-year results in early April, and they showed that revenue for 2005 increased 17 percent to $11.09 billion.
Also this year, Roger Sant, the company's co-founder and chairman emeritus, retired from AES's board. Victoria D. Harker joined the company from MCI this year as chief financial officer and an executive vice president, replacing Barry Sharp.
This year, AES announced plans to sell its interests in a Canadian power plant for $110 million and to build a $320 million hydroelectric plant in Panama, which will make it the largest producer of electricity in Panama, the company said. Construction also began this year on a power plant in Chile, where AES has been generating electricity since 2000. The company also secured financing for a $1.4 billion power plant in Bulgaria, and it expects to break ground this year. AES last year agreed to acquire SeaWest Holdings Inc., a move that made AES one of the top developers and operators of wind farms in this country, the company said.
In April of this year, AES said it would invest about $1 billion over the next three years to expand the company's alternative energy business and develop projects to reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions. About half of that would go to enlarging the wind-power business.

Chairman: Philip A. Odeen

2007 Financial Data

Total employees: 30,000 | Local employees: 300