Construction Giant Coninsa Ramon H Files Bankruptcy Petition
Medellin-based construction giant Coninsa Ramon H – one of the principal contractors to the US$5 billion “Hidroituango” hydroelectric project – this morning (October 12) filed a bankruptcy petition with Colombia’s Superintendencia de Sociedades (Supersociedades) regulatory agency.
Under Colombian law, the petition is known as an “Emergency Negotiation of a Reorganization Agreement (NEAR) under Law 560 of 2020,” according to Supersociedades.
“Within the framework of the procedure, the company must set a notice regarding the duration of the negotiation, notify the creditors of the beginning of the emergency negotiation and all the judges and entities that carry out executive, restitution, and guarantee enforcement processes or coercive collection, in order to be suspended during the process, and the company must start the negotiation with creditors and enter into the reorganization agreement in a term no longer than three months for confirmation by the Bankruptcy Judge,” according to the agency.
“The Emergency Negotiation of a Reorganization Agreement, established in Decree Law 560, is a mechanism for rescue and business recovery for those debtors who are affected by the causes that led to the declaration of the State of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency, which allows to avert the crisis and preserve the company and employment through negotiation with creditors and the confirmation of a reorganization agreement,” the agency added.
Coninsa Ramon H is one of 26 companies, politicians and former Hidroituango officials hit by a proposed COP$4.3 trillion (US$1.15 billion) claim brought by Colombia’s Comptroller General (Contraloria General) for alleged “gross negligence” that supposedly triggered a costly 2018 collapse of a diversion tunnel at Hidroituango.
Potentially, Coninsa Ramon H and other companies could lose the current construction contract at Hidroituango and be forced to pay huge damage claims, possibly threatening the future viability of those companies.
In a September 6, 2021 press statement following the Comptroller-General’s claims announcement, the CCC-Ituango Consortium — of which Coninsa Ramon H is one of the principal member companies — announced that they will appeal the Comptroller’s claims.
“From what has been analyzed so far, the [Comptroller’s] ruling corresponds to issues that are eminently technical (project scheduling and tunnel construction), and we hope that the totality of the evidence that we provide is taken into account by all the instances to which we will resort,” according to that press statement.
