The Government appealed a ruling that forces it to pay about US$ 390 million

On January 8, the government of Javier Miley presented the appeal to the court ruling of the US District of Columbia a month ago that forces Argentina to pay US$389 million by the expropriation of Aerolíneas Argentinas.

In this way, the country seeks to reverse the demand bottom Titan Consortium before the North American justice system, which enabled the execution of a sentence of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

“Pursuant to Rules 3 and 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, notice is hereby given this January 8, 2025 that the respondent, the Republic Argentina appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit the final order and judgment of the District Court, entered on December 10, 2024, in favor of the plaintiff, Titan Consortium, LLC, and against the defendantas well as any other order entered by the District Court, including, but not limited to, the District Court order entered on August 19, 2024, which denied defendant’s motion to dismiss“, maintains the local presentation shared via X by Sebastian Marilanalyst Latam Advisor.

In November, Argentina and Titan Consortium had reached a agreement on the terms and conditions of the sentence for the Aerolíneas expropriation case. So, the country had to pay US$ 389.5 million including interest. From that day on, interest continues to be added at a variable rate, which at the beginning was 5,11%. On December 11, the District Court of Columbia ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in what was known as the final sentence.

The arrival of Titan Consortium to this judicial process occurred after will buy the litigation rights from the Burford Capital fundanother acquaintance of Argentina, since he is a litigant against the country in the case YPF.

At the end of August 2021, the investment fund had filed an ‘Enforcement’ lawsuit to force the Argentine State to pay a judgment against him of US$ 320 millionwhich was originally dictated in 2017 by ICSID, the arbitral tribunal of the World Bank.

According to the claim, Argentina never paid this sentence of ICSID, which had remained firm in 2019, shortly before the transfer of the presidential sash by Mauricio Macri a Alberto Fernandez. Titan’s presentation was in the courts of Columbia, in the district of Washington, whose court must designate which judge will take charge.

Between October 2001 and July 2008, the company Interinvestowner of the Aerolíneas shares, had been left in the hands of Air Cometa small Spanish airline controlled, in turn, by tourism businessmen, whose best-known brand was the agency Martians. In a short time, here they began to be called Grupo Mercans.

Marsans had begun his management with the support of the aeronautical unionswhich in 2001 had opposed an Aerolíneas adjustment plan that the Spanish State wanted to carry out at that time, which had received the shares of the airline after having been managed since its privatization by Iberia y American Airlines.

In June 2001, after a prolonged strike against State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) Spanish in charge of the Association of Aeronautical Technical Personnel (APTA)Airlines should have requested their preventive contest. In October, it was the transfer of shares from the Spanish SEPI to Marsans.

Already with Cristina Kirchner as president, and Ricardo Jaime still Secretary of Transportation, Marsans finally threw in the towel in mid-2008, when stopped paying a monthly deficit which at that time was around US$25 million.

In July 2008, Jaime and the Minister of Planning, Julio De Vidowere present at the Airlines building in the Bouchard tower to take over the company. They appointed the then former mayor of La Plata as intervener, Julio Alak. A law that Congress voted that same year put Aerolíneas shares ‘subject to expropriation‘.

A year later, in July 2009, Alak was replaced by Mariano Recaldecurrent senator and leader of La Cámpora, who took charge of Aerolíneas, supported by the current Buenos Aires governor, Axel Kicillof.

At that time, one of the three owners of Marsans, Gonzalo Pascualhad already died, while his partners, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán and the former president of Airlines, Antonio Matathey faced fraud charges before the Spanish Justice (they would later be convicted). It was around then that they presented the claim for the expropriation of Aerolíneas before the ICSID.

The ruling of the World Bank court it took nine years. In the middle, the Spanish sold ownership of the trial at the Burford Fund by US$25 million. Burford, in turn, assigned the rights to the Aerolíneas lawsuit to the Titan fund, which now seeks to collect more than US$389 million.