Chile desoye a Azvi y cancela dos concesiones de 400 millones de euros

Chile has not backed down. The government of José Antonio Kast informed the authorities of Concepción (Bio Bio) this weekend about the reasons that led to suspending the two contracts awarded to Azvi, which were estimated to involve investments of a combined 400 million euros. The Chilean Executive opted to execute the mobility projects through the public budget and thus abandon the concession model with which Azvi was initially going to execute them.

The Spanish constructor, taking advantage of the visit of the Chilean president to the area last Friday, sent a letter proposed by the Ministry of Public Works in which it proposed modifications to the scope of the concession contract that allowed reducing the cost of the projects by 20%, about 80 million euros, and meeting the dates of commissioning.

The proposal went unnoticed. In the sector, it is feared that the government's decision is conditioned by having been initiatives of the previous socialist Executive of Gabriel Boric. The conflict, which opened this summer a deep debate in Chile on the concession model, occurred after the Ministry of Public Works of Chile sent a letter to the directors of the Spanish company in early October informing that they were suspending the provisional award of the contracts for the Public Transport Corridor Route 160 and the Public Transport Corridor Route 150, as well as the Concepción-Talcahuano highway.

Both construction projects, with a 20-year exploitation period, carried with them investments that were financed through a payment for availability. The decision, which has forced the multinational Spanish to have to assume costs for the preparation of the contracts and their financing, comes at a time when the Kast government is again appealing to the market to build new road and social infrastructures through concessions.

The most mature project in the bidding is the so-called Libertadores Highway (Route 57), currently managed by Abertis and for which Chile is bidding. The Asian presence has raised bubbles among the Spanish bidders. The investment exceeds 800 million euros.