Access to Capital: the concessionaires leave to respond to the Government, which asks for the cancellation of the contracts

The North and West access concessionaires they went out to answer him to the government, which asks cancel the operating contracts of these two highways.

With the signature of Alberto Fernández, this Thursday the decree allowing the start of the Legal actions intended to declare the extensions of the concessions, signed in 2018, null and void.

Both concessions are in the hands of the same company: the Spaniards Abertis. And the communications they sent to the stock exchange are identical.

Autopistas del Sol (Panamericana) and Grupo Concesionario del Oeste (Autopistas del Oeste) indicated that they were aware of the “decree declaring ‘harmful to the general interest'” the decree establishing the renegotiation of the contract and ordering Vialidad to deposit “an act of lesividad in order to obtain the judicial declaration of nullity of the same”.

Companies have said it so far have not been notified of any legal action, but that the renegotiation agreement was concluded during the previous administration “It is completely legitimate. “

The companies assure that the agreement has been approved by the Executive Branch “after a renegotiation process that lasted 16 years, started in 2002 with a partial agreement in 2006 and completed in 2018” with the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement, having fulfilled with all control instances established by the applicable legislation.

The government’s argument

The Executive wants to remove the concession because it understands that Mauricio Macri’s administration has validated a “alleged debt” by the national state of US $ 540 million with Autopistas del Sol and US $ 272 million with Grupo Concesionario del Oeste.

Abertis had started an ICSID statement, the World Bank’s international arbitration tribunal. The company required a compensation of up to $ 1,135 million at that time.

As part of the renegotiation of the previous administration, Vialidad the 2020 concession extended until 2030, deadline for Autopistas del Sol to recover investments already made and not amortized. The company, in turn, has pledged to disburse $ 7.3 billion in new works.

“Of all the documentation that motivated the signing and subsequent approval of the Full Contractual Renegotiation Agreements, there are no elements that give certainty about the existence of this presumed debt”, affirms the current Executive Power.

“A mechanism has been established automatic six-monthly update of ratesplus an update each time the CER index exceeds 10%, and the prohibition envisaged in the original contracts concerning the same legal person to be a shareholder of the concession holder and of another company holding road concessions granted by the grantor has been removed “. , exercises executive power.

“In the decrees (of the Macri administration) it was also established that all disputes should be submitted to arbitration according to the arbitration regulations of the International Chamber of Commerce, which means that the renounce sovereignty jurisdiction of the nation state ”, according to the Government.

Autopistas del Sol (Ausol) and Grupo Concesario del Oeste (GCO) they had challenged the general administrator of the National Road Administration, Gustavo Arrieta; the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis, and the Prosecutor of the National Treasury, Carlos Zannini.

The aim was to promote the cancellation of the acts of these officials in the context of the control in view of the possible initiation of legal action to cancel the renegotiation.

The companies alleged the alleged injury to which officials would have incurred.

In August 2021, both Ausol and Grupo Concesionario del Oeste requested the “nullity and inadmissibility” of the review process carried out by Obras Públicas.

NEITHER