Government not yet has finished paying 2008 nationalizations

Although they reached agreements with two cementeras the Executive has not given the bottoms, whereas Cemex decided to go to the arbitration (AFP/Archivo)

Cold Hugo Chavez in 2007 initiated a wave of nationalizations of companies that stayed during this exercise and that it extended to different areas. Nevertheless, the payments by the acquisitions of the companies have still not been realised.

The national Executive in the acquisition of the actions of three companies at least must carry out a cancellation of 2,400 million dollars, and that amount can be greater if other companies are added, whose values are in estimation.

In the first trimester of the year, Pdvsa carried out the purchase of Milky The $andes, Tropigas and Vengas and from a refrigerator and for that reason it ended up cancelling more than 250 million dollars.

In the second and third trimesters the majors took place nationalizations. In fact in that stage the takings of the actions of Sidor announced and of the cementeras Lafarge, Holcim and Cemex and the Bank of Venezuela and the acquisition of the companies of Faja was realised.

In process In May the mixed companies in Faja were constituted, but all the oil ones did not take refuge in the terms determined by Pdvsa. In that context, the companies Conoco and Exxon decided to go to the arbitration and still the value of the actions and therefore the amounts have not been defined to cancel.

Between the months of May and June the decrees for the cementeras nationalizations of Sidor and companies were emitted. In the case of the iron and steel and after several negotiations with the Ternium group it was defined that the price to pay by the participation in the company would be of 1,600 million dollars, however, still it is continued reviewing the valuation of the company and the payment has not become.

Similar situation is registered with the cementeras. From the three nationalized companies, the Government got to make specific agreements with the branchs of Lafarge and Holcim and by the actions of those companies announced the cancellation of 819 million dollars, of it they have spent four months, and still they are not finished distributing the resources.

With Cemex it was come to the expropriation and the authorities decided to carry out meetings in order to define the value of the actions. The Government considered that the value of the company was of 650 million dollars, whereas the Mexican company asked for 1,300 million dollars. But given to the lack of definition as far as the price the cementera he decided to go to the arbitration.

In August the national Executive announced the nationalization of the Bank of Venezuela. In this case the authorities got to maintain conversations with the Santander Group and recently the resources were authorized to initiate the estimate of the financial institution. Analysts consider that the cost of the actions of the organization would be in 1.200 million dollars.

Some days ago the holder of the public finances declared that they would be hoping themselves by the surpluses of this year to be able to carry out the cancellations of those procedures, but did not give to majors details.

Against this background, in which the Executive has been having itself has not completed the payments of the initiated procedures of nationalization for eight months, now a new expropriation announces. The past Sunday the President indicated that to expropriate the commercial center Sambil located in Candlemas. The cost of the building is considered between 50 million and 100 million dollars.

In the middle of a possible diminution of the income by the behavior of the prices of the crude one, now the Executive will have to disburse the bottoms for the nationalizations.

Mayela Arms H.
THE UNIVERSAL ONE