Ecuador seizes more companies over debt dispute

QUITO, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Ecuador started a new wave of seizures of companies owned by a business group over a debt row with the state, officials said, in a move that could help boost President Rafael Correa's popularity before a key vote in September.

Correa sent police on Wednesday to seize companies owned by the Penafiel group in payment of debts owed to the government, which in the 1990s spent millions of dollars trying to salvage the bank owned by Penafiel.

The government on Wednesday confiscated six companies and stakes the Penafiel group owns in 413 diverse companies, including stakes in several gas stations.

One of the companies, Tripetrol, is a small oil firm that has trade operations in Ecuador. Details of the other companies and seized stakes were not immediately available.

In July, Ecuador took over more than 200 companies -- including two television stations -- owned by the Isaias group over pending debts in a move cheered by most Ecuadoreans.

Pollsters say the confiscation has helped Correa muster votes before a key referendum on a new constitution that would bolster his powers over political institutions and the economy. He is inching closer to the 50 percent majority he needs to win the vote, recent surveys show.

Most Ecuadoreans support the mass confiscation and demand jail sentences for bank owners who fled the country after the crisis.

The government has vowed to continue seizing companies owned by powerful economic groups linked to the decade-old financial meltdown.

A representative of the Penafiel family was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Jose Llangari; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)