Toll roads are a sensitive issue for the State Government not only because of the debate over funding to maintain the roads, but also because of the litigation inherited from previous administrations, the resolution of which may require addressing unexpected efforts. Over the course of the next financial year, the State will gamble nearly 5,000 million euros in various proceedings at the Supreme Court, the culmination of which will serve, at the very least, to resolve conflicts that in some cases date back to the financial crisis of 2008.
The main litigation is the one between Abertis and the administration over the AP-7 motorway in the section between Salou and la Jonquera, on which a decision is expected during the first quarter of next year. The concession ended in August 2021 and the company waited six months, until February 2022, to file a lawsuit for the money it believes is owed by the State for the investments it has made.
The company, owned by ACS and the Italian Mundys, the former Atlantia, claims compensation of more than 4,000 million euros in accordance with the remuneration formula established in 2006, at the stage in which Magdalena Álvarez was minister of encouragement The solution that was found at the time was considered creative by the parties, although years later it was invalidated.
The underlying conflict lies in the change in the AP-7 contract in 2006, when Abertis was asked to invest 500 million euros, eliminate tolls on the outskirts of Barcelona and allow the construction of parallel roads 'high capacity, among other things. To compensate the company, a system linked to traffic was devised, in which the State had to assume a higher amount if the flow of vehicles was below forecasts, as it ended up being.
Abertis has already collected nearly 1,000 million euros from the State, so the hole the State faces is approaching 3,000 million. Only a small part is provided and a resolution in his favor would generate a strong cash flow.
This litigation is the main one pending resolution, but companies and investment funds are also keeping an eye on another Supreme Court ruling on radio stations that went bankrupt after the 2008 crisis, especially after the court ruled against the calculations of the Spanish Government to compensate the current owners.
The Spanish Government initially put the compensation to the operators of these radio stations, most of them located in Madrid, at 1,021 million euros. The litigation is actually with the five funds that bought the debt of eight of the nine toll roads that went bankrupt, which are King Street, Attestor, SVP, Deustche Bank and Taconic Capital. They have the right to collect for the patrimonial responsibility of the administration (RPA) that the State assumed in those projects, and the struggle now consists in determining what is the amount that corresponds to them.
The litigants calculate that, in late interest alone, the compensation for this compensation has already increased by more than 600 million euros in recent years, which would be added to 1,021 million. Sources of the funds did not want to make statements on this issue.
This is the last detail of a traumatic process that was practically closed in 2018, when the Spanish Government approved the file for the liquidation of the motorways and the transfer of management to the state company Seittsa, which is the one that exploits now the roads with lower tolls. Once this unknown is resolved, the final bill for the public coffers of the bankruptcy of the Madrid freeways will be made public.
This year the courts have already been taking steps to define the jurisprudence on these motorways. The Supreme Court forced the State to recalculate the settlement of the A-43 toll highway, the Guadiana highway, which forms part, together with the Madrilenías, of the rescued roads. In this way, a compensation for the patrimonial responsibility of the administration had also been established.
The Atlantic motorway, the AP-9, owned by Itínere, remains waiting for the courts to decide on the compensation it claims for pending compensation, valued at hundreds of millions of euros.
One of the major judicial decisions of 2023 on the motorways has been the rejection by the Supreme Court of the compensations claimed by the operators for the drop in traffic during the pandemic. The decision responds to a procedure proposed by Itínere and Globalvia related to the Galician motorways.
Statewide, thirteen toll roads are still operational after reversals in recent years. As part of the agreements with Brussels to receive European funds, the Spanish Government undertook to create a system of tolls to finance the roads, later replaced by measures to incentivize the railway.
