Panama Canal and Sacyr-led consortium, closer to a deal

The meeting comes after Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli held talks with Spain’s Public Works Minister, Ana Pastor, in Panama City which resulted in a “preliminary agreement”: builders agreed to channel all their claims through the routes set out in the contract. It was the first encounter between both parties since December 30. That day Spanish-led consortium (GUPC), which besides Sacyr includes Italy’s Salini Impregilo, Belgium’s Jan De Nul and Panama’s Constructora Urbana, notified canal managers in a letter that they would suspend work after Jan. 20 if their demands for an additional payment of $1.63 billion weren’t met.

“This means good news for Sacyr, since this negotiation could save the project and eliminate the uncertainties. The most likely scenario is that they’ll reach an intermediate agreement, in which the Panamanian Government covers half of the costs (circa $800 million). On the other hand, the consortium would have to sacrifice some profit margin,” says Juan Moreno, analysts from Ahorro Corporación.

Sabadell Analysts believe this will cause a big damage to Sacyr’s image indeed.

“This [situation] damages the image of the company, since we don’t exactly know the economic impact that the stoppage of the works could have,” they say.

The Spanish government insists they will not provide funds to resume the expansion of the Canal works “in any case”, and its role is limited to a “mediation”.

The Consortium won the project in July 2009 at a cost of $3,12 bn million, a figure that was considerably lower than the cost stipulated by the other two competitors in the bid.

 

 

 

About the Author

Ana Fuentes
Columnist for El País and a contributor to SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión), was the first editor-in-chief of The Corner. Currently based in Madrid, she has been a correspondent in New York, Beijing and Paris for several international media outlets such as Prisa Radio, Radio Netherlands or CNN en español. Ana holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University in Madrid and the Sorbonne University in Paris, and a Master's in Journalism from Spanish newspaper El País.

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