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In another huge financial blow against Corvera Airport, the regional government in Murcia has been ordered to pay €160 million to Sacyr over the disastrous airport project that went spectacularly wrong more than a decade ago.

 

Madrid Commercial Court has ruled in favour of Sacyr in its lawsuit against the regional government over Murcia International Airport. The ruling establishes that the Region must pay the airport's former concessionaire €143.7 million for investments made before it was rescinded from the contract, plus €17 million in interest from the date of the out-of-court claim, bringing the total amount payable to €160 million.

 

The story starts back in July 2007, when Sacyr, holding a 60.65% stake alongside partners including BMN, SabadellCAM, Cementos Lacruz and Montoro e Hijos, won the concession to build and operate the Region's new airport at Corvera. The plan was to have it open by 2012.

 

As we all know now, that didn't happen. By 2013, the Ministry of Public Works and Land Management of the Region of Murcia had lost patience and terminated the concession contract entirely. The concessionaire, operating under the name Aeromur, subsequently filed for pre-bankruptcy proceedings to try and refinance roughly €200 million in debt that banks had lent them in 2010 to partially fund the airport's construction.

 

With the contract cancelled and the project in tatters, the government of Ramón Luis Valcárcel put the management of the Region's new airport out to tender in December 2014. It would be another four years before anyone actually flew into or out of Corvera.

 

The airport finally welcomed its first passengers in January 2019, a full 16 years after the project was declared "of general interest" to the State. By then, it was under the management of Aena, Spain's national airport operator, which hoped to eventually reach 4 million passengers per year by the end of its 25 year concession period.

 

The judge's ruling is quite clear on the basic facts. According to the decision, there is no dispute regarding the existence, amount or nature of the debt claimed by the debtor. The debt is for long-term investments held by the debtor against the Region of Murcia.

 

Sacyr, through its former Aeromur entity, had requested payment from the autonomous community for this debt. The bankruptcy administration backed this request for payment, while the regional government opposed it.

 

If that wasn’t enough drama, there’s another twist. It turns out that the regional government will actually benefit from the payment itself, as it leads the creditors' list with more than 90% of the concession's debt after the contract was returned to public hands. So while they've been ordered to pay out €160 million, most of it will likely flow straight back to them through the bankruptcy proceedings.

 

Despite this, the regional government announced on Tuesday October 7 that it will file an appeal. Their argument is that the ruling "did not take into account the new settlement balance issued in January of this year, amounting to €61 million in favour of the Community, which is being appealed by the concessionaire company."

 

These €61 million represent the difference between the investments (€143 million) and what they claim are damages caused by Sacyr (€204 million). In other words, they reckon they're actually owed money, not the other way round.

 

"The regional government will continue to defend the interests of the Region of Murcia so that the previous concessionaire pays the consequences of its breaches, which resulted in the infrastructure being unable to open in 2012 as planned," a government spokesperson stated, assuring that they maintain "full confidence that the courts will rule in favour of the Community."

 

This clearly isn't over. With appeals planned and multiple legal proceedings still ongoing, the final reckoning over who owes what in this failed project could be years away.

 

 

Image: Archive