Abertis, the Spanish group in charge of the North and West access concession
The Spanish consortium Abertis is the owner of the two companies that manage two of the motor vehicle entry routes to the City of Buenos Aires, through Autopistas del Sol, in charge of the maintenance and operation of Acceso Norte and Avenida General Paz, and through middle of the Western Concessionary Group.
These are two road corridors of about 119 kilometers in length, in the case of Acceso Norte and General Paz, and 56 kilometers in the case of Acceso Oeste, crossing the suburbs.
The North Access concession to Autopistas del Sol (Ausol) came about in 1992 after a tender and was awarded to the consortium made up at that time by Sideco, from the Macri Group, Dragados y Construcciones (Dycasa) and the Italian company Impregilo, all with a third of the Share package.
In 2001, months before the fall of Convertibility, Franco Macri (Sideco) sold 25 percentage points of his shares to Dycasa, and reduced his participation to 7%.
Ausol happened to be managed by Spaniards. The collapse of the 1 to 1 and the pesification of the contracts together with the rate freeze, altered the economic-financial equation of the concession contract and Ausol fell into default.
The shareholders went to the ICSID arbitral tribunal of the World Bank to claim the loss of value of the contracts.
When in 2007, Dycasa (Dragados in Esapaña) was acquired by ACS and later transferred its shares to Abertis, which today holds 31.59% of the Ausol package, the Spanish led the takeover of Ausol and the lawsuit before the ICSID.
In May 2017, Natal, an investment group of rural origin, bought the 7% held by Sideco and another small portion held by Dycasa.
Prior to this, on February 14 of the same year, the then President Mauricio Macri approved a new tariff schedule for tolls, with an increase of up to 120% for the West and North accesses, where he still kept his shares in the concession.
This increase not only improved the income equation for dealers, but also increased Ausol’s valuation just before the sale of Sideco’s shares to Natal.
Days before the increase in tolls was announced, on February 10, Ausol’s shares were trading at $66.50 on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange.
On May 26, the day the Macri family sold its 7% stake, the concessionaire’s papers rose to $92 with an increase of 40% in three and a half months.
Impregilo was acquired in 2014 by another Italian group, Salini, which, after buying the American road company Lane Construction in 2016, formed the company Webuild, which owns 19.82% of the Ausol package.
The rest of Ausol’s shareholders are made up of the Natal investment group with 14.12% and minority market holders with 34.47%.
Regarding the works, which were developed between 1994 and 1996, the investment prior to the start of the toll collection meant more than US$424 million, while the amount disbursed up to 2001 totaled US$788 million, according to Ausol.
Given that Argentina could not face Abertis’s claim, for US$ 1,000 million, as compensation for the freezing and pesification of tariffs, the ICSID claim was resolved by means of an extension of the original concession contract that expired in 2020 and began to operate until 2030, and an investment of some US$ 430 million by Abertis and its waiver of new claims.
The complaint filed after this by Rodolfo Tailhade, Adrián Grana, Carlos Castagneto and Leopoldo Moreau maintains that in this operation Abertis was paid almost US$ 500 million, in compensation, in exchange for abandoning the ICSID lawsuit.
According to the complaint, this payment was made during the management of former President Mauricio Macri, former Minister Guillermo Dietrich and former Director of National Roads, Javier Iguacel.
Autopistas del Oeste (Auoeste), was born from the Grupo Concesario del Oeste, from a tender awarded in 1993 to a consortium formed by Benito Roggio, the Mexican Development Group and the Brazilian CBPO Engenharia.
In 1996, the Malaysian group IJM joined, which today holds 20.10% of Auoeste.
In 1999, 30% of its capital was placed in a public offer, most of which was acquired by the former AFJPs and today they are in the hands of the Anses Sustainability Guarantee Fund.
In December 2000, the Abertis Group, through its subsidiary Acesa, acquired 48.6% of the shares of Grupo Concesionario del Oeste, with the right to 57.6% of the votes.
Of the total share package, 31.30% of Auoeste is in public offering and the remaining 5.73% in the hands of a trust.
