Abertis will give a vote of confidence to the Government of Javier Milei and hopes to sit down at the end of January with its head of Economy to negotiate a possible withdrawal from the arbitration that the highway concessionaire has filed against Argentina at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes ( ICSID), according to sources familiar with the process.
This international court, based in Washington, depends on the World Bank, with which the new Argentine Government wants to ingratiate itself as part of its attempt to improve relations with international investors. The complaint to the ICSID is an element of pressure that can facilitate the agreement.
The Spanish group, owned by ACS and the Italian Mundys, the former Atlantia, demands the review of the rates of its Autopistas del Sol (Ausol) and Grupo Concesionario del Oeste (GCO) concessions, in which it has a 30% stake. %. Their request is that, as agreed, the updates be in line with inflation, in a country where prices rise more than 150% a year.
This litigation is the result of a decision adopted by the previous Argentine Government, that of Alberto Fernández, with the argument that the contract signed in 2018, with Mauricio Macri in power, was worthless.
The amount at stake is around 750 million dollars (680 million euros) and Abertis’ intention in the negotiation is not to get Argentina to multiply tolls on the highways, but to find an intermediate formula consisting of extending the term of the concessions.
The company, whose partners in the toll roads are listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, trusts that Milei will accept a formula of this type and assumes that it will now have an easier time operating in the country.
In the complaint before the ICSID, the country is accused of failing to comply with the Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between Spain and Argentina of 1991. Abertis already denounced Argentina in 2015, during the Macri era, but withdrew it after reaching an agreement with the Government.
