The Generalitat de Catalunya (the Government of Catalonia) will have to pay ACCIONA €304 million over the 2018 Spanish supreme court annulment of the €1 billion 50-year Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) metropolitan Barcelona bulk water concession, a water concession awarded to the Spanish company in 2012, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia has ordered, reports El País.
ACCIONA’s ATLL affiliate informed the stock market regulator National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) that it is examining the grounds of the high court’s decision to determine what further legal or judicial actions, if any, may be instituted
The privatization of Aigües Ter-Llobregat (ATLL) was the largest privatisation of a public service undertaken by a Catalan government and which ended up being liquidated six years after it was awarded.
Now, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has ended up partially agreeing with ACCIONA and its partners in that business venture. It has recognized that the Generalitat must pay €262.8 million in unamortised royalties, 38.2 million euros for unamortised investments and a further 3.3 million euros for the costs of the tender and incorporation of the company.
In 2015, the Government of Catalonia made a provision of €380 million in case it was forced to annul the contract. Four years later, ACCIONA sold its rights to the claim for €170 million plus an amount contingent on the final award.
In 2019, ATLL returned to its original formula of public management. This means that the Catalan government is responsible for managing the treatment of water from its collection to the municipal reservoirs, from where it is distributed to homes and businesses by the suppliers.
