The Supreme Court ruling that refuses to compensate Abertis with 4,000 million euros for the drop in traffic on the AP-7 will have an impact of 29 million on its accounts, as the company communicated to the CNMV yesterday. ACS, its owner together with its German subsidiary Hochtief and the Italian Mundys, will bear a blow of 14.5 million. Abertis announced that it is studying “appeals” on the decision.
The origin of the dispute comes from a modification of the AP-7 contract in 2006. Acesa, a subsidiary of Abertis, invested to expand from two to three lanes in the Catalan section, because until then the level of traffic created congestion problems. The project included the implementation of a closed toll system in certain sections (Martorell and Vilaseca/Salou).
The idea of ??the company was that the expansion would create more traffic, with the consequent increase in revenue via tolls. But the arrival of the crisis plunged trips and disrupted the concessionaire’s income. For this reason, he claimed compensation of 4,000 million from the State for the drop in traffic. By 2022, he had already been paid 1,069.9 million for the investment in the works.
For Abertis, the Supreme Court ruling implies a net accounting loss of provisions of around 250 million euros, but in turn it has a net cash inflow of 65 million “after the Supreme Court recognized the company’s right to be compensated by certain complementary investments”, as reported by the company. With other reversals of provisions and extraordinary income, the final impact is only the 29 million quoted.
The company reported that “it is studying, in defense of its legitimate interests, the possible avenues of appeal”. “The Supreme Court does not appreciate the main claim of Abertis based on its right to be compensated for the differential margin between the actual traffic and the forecast”, he recalled.
“The company remains focused on the execution of its global growth strategy, with the support of its shareholders ACS and Mundys”, he added in his communication.
This Tuesday the agency S
For its part, ACS estimates its impact at 14.5 million: “The impact is immaterial and will not affect the results”, he explained in a short note to the CNMV. On the stock market, ACS shares advanced by almost 2% yesterday, after falling by 10% on Monday with the publication of the Supreme Court ruling.
