THE AES CORPORATION THE AES CORPORATION The global power company A Passion to Serve A Passion A PASSION to SERVE 2000 ANNUAL REPORT ANNUAL REPORT THE AES CORPORATION 1001 North 19th Street 2000 Arlington, Virginia 22209 USA (703) 522-1315 CONTENTS OFFICES 1 AES at a Glance AES CORPORATION AES HORIZONS THINK AES (CORPORATE OFFICE) Richmond, United Kingdom Arlington, Virginia 2 Note from the Chairman 1001 North 19th Street AES OASIS AES TRANSPOWER Arlington, Virginia 22209 Suite 802, 8th Floor #16-05 Six Battery Road 5 Our Annual Letter USA City Tower 2 049909 Singapore Phone: (703) 522-1315 Sheikh Zayed Road Phone: 65-533-0515 17 AES Worldwide Overview Fax: (703) 528-4510 P.O. Box 62843 Fax: 65-535-7287 AES AMERICAS Dubai, United Arab Emirates 33 AES People Arlington, Virginia Phone: 97-14-332-9699 REGISTRAR AND Fax: 97-14-332-6787 TRANSFER AGENT: 83 2000 AES Financial Review AES ANDES FIRST CHICAGO TRUST AES ORIENT Avenida del Libertador COMPANY OF NEW YORK, 26/F. Entertainment Building 602 13th Floor A DIVISION OF EQUISERVE 30 Queen’s Road Central 1001 Capital Federal P.O. Box 2500 Hong Kong Buenos Aires, Argentina Jersey City, New Jersey 07303 Phone: 852-2842-5111 Phone: 54-11-4816-1502 USA Fax: 852-2530-1673 Fax: 54-11-4816-6605 Shareholder Relations AES AURORA AES PACIFIC Phone: (800) 519-3111 100 Pine Street Arlington, Virginia STOCK LISTING: Suite 3300 NYSE Symbol: AES AES ENTERPRISE San Francisco, California 94111 Investor Relations Contact: Arlington, Virginia USA $217 $31 Kenneth R. Woodcock 93% 92% AES ELECTRIC Phone: (415) 395-7899 $1.46* 91% Senior Vice President 89% Burleigh House Fax: (415) 395-7891 88% 1001 North 19th Street $.96* 18 Parkshot $.84* AES SÃO PAULO Arlington, Virginia 22209 Richmond TW9 2RG $21 Av. Alfredo Egidio de Souza USA $135 United Kingdom Aranha 100-B 13 And. Phone: (703) 522-1315 Phone: 44-208-334-5300 $116 $.56 São Paulo, 04726-270 Fax: (703) 528-4510 $11 $.40 $98 Fax: 44-208-940-1170 $9 Brazil SEC DOCUMENTS: $51 $4 Phone: 55-11-548-9461 AES ENDEAVOR The Annual Report on Form Billion Dollars Dollars Billion Dollars 141 Depot Road Fax: 55-546-1933 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 10-K is filed with the U.S. Uncasville, Connecticut 06382 AES SILK ROAD Securities and Exchange DILUTED EARNINGS ASSETS TOTAL BACKLOG AVERAGE USA PER SHARE OF SALES AVAILABILITY Myasnitskaya Ulitsa 24/7 Commission. A copy of the Phone: (860) 848-9223 Building 1 Entrance 10 10-K and other SEC documents Fax: (860) 848-3814 1st Floor, Office 97 can be obtained by writing to AES GREAT PLAINS Moscow 101000 the Company. Russia 1901 Butterfield Road WORLD WIDE WEB: Phone: 00-7-095-935-75-79 Suite 650 Please visit us at Fax: 00-7-095-935-75-80 Downers Grove, Illinois 60515 http://www.aesc.com USA AES SIROCCO Phone: (630) 353-0513 Richmond, United Kingdom FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Fax: (630) 353-0519 The Annual Meeting of FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2000 1999 1998 Stockholders of The AES Corporation will be held Thursday, April 19th, 2001 Revenues $ 6,691 $ 3,253 $ 2,398 at 9:30 a.m. in the Company’s Net Income $ 665* $ 377* $ 307* corporate headquarters at Earnings Per Share – Diluted $ 1.46* $ .96* $ .84* 1001 North 19th Street, Arlington, Virginia, USA. *Excluding extraordinary items for all years, environmental fine for 2000 and foreign currency transaction losses for 1999. Photography: Joel Grimes Design: Alpert & Alpert, Inc., Herndon, Virginia On the Cover:Jose Cosme Nunes,São Paulo,Brazil (top); On the Back Cover:Mercede Mariya,Dominican Republic (top); April Perez,AES Puerto Rico (center); Jose Ganzalez Gutierrez,AES EDC,Venezuela (center); Maria Alejandra Matute,Rio de Janeiro,Brazil (bottom) Brian Medhurst,Townsville,Queensland,Australia (bottom) The AES Corporation is a global power company committed to serving the world’s needs for electricity in a socially responsible way. AES has grown to include 139 businesses in 32 countries representing over 64,000 megawatts of generating capacity and electricity distribution businesses serving over 18 million customers. Kay Ritchie, Mansfield,Victoria,Australia AES AT A GLANCE AES 2000 NOTE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Note from the Chairman The year 2000 was another remarkable year for AES. Our ability to meet the world’s need for electricity continued to expand at a record pace as we added new businesses in Venezuela, Oman, Nigeria, Chile, and Bolivia. In addition we successfully completed two tender offers for public companies — our first ever — and launched totally new activities in telecommunications. In its 19 years, AES has become a truly global company. Our July Orientation in Arlington hosted 180 AES people and their spouses from 24 countries. After meeting and talking with everyone, I remain convinced that AES’s fundamental values are alive and well and that our culture is as meaningful in Kazakhstan as it is in Arlington. Each new country we enter provides rein- forcement of the notion that people are more similar than they are different. Our October business review and Board meet- ing in Lahore, Pakistan, was an unbelievable experience. All three hundred of us were fortunate to spend a wonderful evening with General Musharaf and many of his colleagues, which further encouraged us that AES Oscar E. Bramajo, Buenos Aires,Argentina can make a difference to help meet the electricity needs of culturally diverse and underserved areas around the world. The important role electricity plays everywhere was brought home to many of us by the recent electricity crisis in California. In the United States, we take our kilowatt-hours for granted — when we flip the switch, the lights go on. However, the surprising shortfall in California furnishes a small and bitter taste of how unreliable most of the world’s power systems are. I am pleased at the thorough understanding our people have of the California crisis, our people’s knowledge of the dynamics that would drive similar crises elsewhere, and the progress we are making to bring more dependable service to millions of people everywhere. 2 Even amid our continued growth, people of AES seem to remain faithful to our aspirations without being constrained by a fear of facing new risks. I believe that AES owes its success to the willingness of all our people to be experimental, insightful, and sometimes radical, while retaining the ability to constantly improve on the conventional and the customary. Good examples can be found in our efforts to expand AES’s role as a supplier to end-users and in telecommunications. While these businesses have yet to prove their viability, they have brought an excitement to the Company that comes from trying new things. All my colleagues at AES understand that change is a constant in the world, whether in electrical markets, political leadership, or company organization. Nonetheless, even those of us with the most finely honed appreciation of change are quite surprised from time to time — by new opportunities (Africa), by new situations (California), and by new approaches (telecom). And though all the quantifiable numbers — revenue, market capitalization, capacity and so on — have risen dramatically over the years, surely the greatest growth has come in an area that cannot be quantified: the fun that we have as we work at being the world’s leading independent supplier of electricity. So while I have stepped back a little more from Juan Carlos Pernuzzi (left), Carlos Montenegro (center),Ariel Merlo (right), the Company to allow me to devote additional time to my wife and my foundation, I remain AES Paraná,Argentina as excited and committed as ever to the people of AES and the people we serve. Roger W. Sant 3 DEAR FRIENDS, It didn’t matter that my cricket bat failed to make contact with the ball until the 12-year-old Pakistani bowler rolled it slowly enough for a five year old to hit. What mattered was the wild cheers and “I am comfortable in the knowledge that we are making a difference and that what I do laughter of the nearly 200 youngsters watching matters.I am proud to be a part of the team.” and playing. What mattered was my own – AES Yarra, Australia exhilaration and that of the other AES people Serafin Frois, Buenos Aires, Argentina (left); Laura Cramer,AES Arlington,Virginia (above); Juan Azpurua Eraso,AES EDC,Venezuela (below) OUR ANNUAL LETTER AES 2000 ANNUAL LETTER there. What really mattered was the realization that without the AES-sponsored school, most of these children might never have had a chance to learn to read. My appreciation of the difference AES is making in Pakistan swelled even more when a short while later, 35 AES people visited a nearby village. The AES women were allowed inside the compound with other Pakistani women. The rest of us talked with some of the male leaders. “Our land now produces crops,” said one, in answer to a question I’d asked about what big changes he’s seen since the construction of our 700 megawatt generation station at Lal Pir. I was surprised at that answer. He explained that construction of the plant lowered the water table that bubbled alkaline water to the surface. Now the water was clean again. Crops could grow. These incidents added luster to my candidate for AES highlight of the year – the annual business review, Board, and budget meetings in Lahore, Pakistan that Roger mentions in his note. Nearly 250 directors, officers, and AES businesspeople gathered there in October from around the world.