04/12/2008 02:44
Buenos Aires Herald - Nota - Argentina - Pág.3
Aerolíneas: Lower House passes takeover bill
>Expropriation plan now moves to the Senate

"Our aim is to safeguard a public service that we think is vital for Argentina," said Agustin Rossi, head of the ruling party Victory Front caucus in the Lower House.
At the beginning of yesterday's session in the Lower House, ruling party deputies said they were willing to alterthe bill to gain more support for it.

The bill was amended before the vote to include an article saying that the government "will discriminate legitimate from illegitimate debt" and will only pay for the legitimate debt. Another article established that within 180 days along and mid-term business plan has to be presented before the bicameral commission monitoring the airlines' nationalization.

Victory Front Deputy Marian West opened the debate and stated that "the expropriation is the best way" to solve the situation of both airlines. "We are proposing the expropriation for which we are willing to pay the legitimate debts, but we will not pay any illegitimate debt," West said.

Deputy Claudio Lozano, from the centre-left Proyecto Sur group, said that 'Aerolíneas should belong to the state, but without taking responsibility for debts that they should not assume.
Marsans vowed to seek international arbitration if Argentina seizes the airline at the symbolic price of one peso.

Deputy Ariel Basteiro, a pro-government Socialist, said "Marsans has too many skeletons in the closet to demand anything before the international courts."
The bill was rejected by the minority Radical party (24 seats), Civic Coalition (18 seats) and PRO (nine seats plus six provincial allies) caucuses.
Members of the airlines staff unions watched the debate from the Lower House's balconies and celebrated the passing of the bill.

The Fernández de Kirchner administration announced its intention of nationalizing Aerolíneas Argentines, originally privatized in 1991, in July. The bill was sent to Congress and passed in September, despite criticisms from opposition lawmakers.

Congress was to negotiate the price at which the debt-burdened airlines would be bought from Marsans group. The government claimed that the companies had a negative value of 832 million dollars. Marsans said it was worth 400 million dollars. After the parts failed to reach an agreement and the government refused to ask for a third party's evaluation, ruling party deputies presented a bill to expropriate the airlines. The judiciary ordered that both companies be intervened, alleging that Marsans was impeding the job of the government-appointed general manager.

Aerolíneas Argentinas had been privatized during the presidency of Carlos Menem in 1991. Marsans bought the airlines in 2001.
Herald staff with agencies