ARCHIVED - Former Corvera management has until 5th November to pay back 182 million euros

The government of Murcia acted as guarantor on a bank loan to Aeromur in 2010

Still there is little news regarding the putting out to tender of the new management contract at the unopened Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera, and the regional government remains cagey on the issue of possible opening dates due to the complexity of the processes which must be followed before any formal commitments are given, but behind the scenes the process of setting the facility on a stable financial footing is gradually being implemented. 

The next crucial date is 5th November, which is the deadline for the former management company Aeromur to pay back to the regional government the sum of 182 million euros. This was the loan capital extended to Aeromur for which the government acted as guarantor in 2010, and when the guarantee was executed in December 2013 the Region of Murcia therefore shouldered the burden of the debt.

Since then, though, the courts have ruled that the Aeromur consortium is obliged to repay the government, although payments in instalments will be accepted if appropriate guarantees are provided.

Should repayment not be forthcoming, the Hacienda department of the government will be forced to embargo assets belonging to Aeromur in an effort to secure the full amount, but this will be a difficult task because the consortium which is led by construction giant Sacyr owns little in its own name. The company line has always been that the only asset on the books was the management contract at Corvera, which was first rescinded in September 2013 and then definitively ended at the end of the following year. 

It has taken the regional government three years of legal proceedings to reach this point, with Aermour insisting that the Region of Murcia not only owns the airport but in addition intends to receive the money invested in building it. In the meantime, the accrued interest on the loan amounts to approximately 24 million euros, although the capital has been partially paid off by the use of money from Spain’s regional liquidity fund (FLA). 

The upshot of all this is that Aeromur may or may not settle its debt with the Murcia government over the course of the next five weeks, but the matter of resolving the management contract which was agreed by the two parties remains pending and a recalculation of the figures will be involved at that stage. 

More importantly to most observers, while the government hopes to receive total or partial payment by 5th November, news regarding the long-awaited opening of Murcia’s new airport remains distinctly thin on the ground. 

Information source: La Opinión