RENEWABLE ARBITRATION – Abengoa sells a right to collect its claim against Spain for 75 million – Markets and Bags

Abengoa, the Andalusian engineering in the process of restructuring, has reached an agreement with a group of funds "vulture" for the sale of rights to collect a millionaire compensation from which it is a beneficiary, as reported by the company to the CNMV. The amount that the company will be directed by Joaquín Fernández de Piérola rises to 75 million euros. Abengoa shares skyrocket 8% in the stock market after the communication of the corporate operation.

“The company reports that it has reached a principle of agreement with a set of funds of recognized prestige for the partial monetization of the arbitration filed by CSP Equity Investments (subsidiary of Abengoa) against the Kingdom of Spain (state) in the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and, consequently, has proceeded to ask its creditors for the necessary consents to be able to formalize the operation, ”explains the company.

This is an arbitration process that the company has maintained against the Kingdom of Spain since 2013 due to the reduction of premiums to renewables in the international arena through its subsidiaries in Luxembourg. Three years later, the Ministry of Economy entered as a shareholder of Abengoa after the restructuring and debt swap process which the company carried out with its creditors after entering bankruptcy.

"It is planned that the operation is structured as a participation in credit rights that may arise from said arbitration in favor of CSP Equity Investments, in exchange for an initial price of up to 75 million as well as an additional amount, once the costs of investors have been covered, the percentage of which will depend on the amount recognized and collected from the arbitration ”, adds Abengoa.

In June 2013, The Sevillian company filed an arbitration claim on behalf of its subsidiary CSP against the Spanish Government after the regulatory reform of the approved electricity sector that considered a de facto expropriation of its solar thermal installations, a renewable energy that is not very competitive but which acquired great development in Spain from Abengoa and ACS thanks to public subsidies. However, the electricity reform undertaken by the Zapatero Government reduced by a 33% solar thermal energy premiums and led to bankruptcy to this type of facility, which had concessions to 40 years.