The International Chamber of Commerce in Miami (ICC) has ordered the Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) consortium to repay the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) a total of USD 847 million in contract advance payments.
Namely, the decision follows of a continuous arbitration between GUPC and ACP.
Specifically, GUPC began an arbitration case opposing to ACP addressing that the advances that were granted by the authority had not expired and were not enforceable until its claims were resolved.
Yet, on December 12, the court decided in favor of ACP.
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On December 17, the Panama Canal Authority stated that it had executed all three letters of credit that guaranteed for the repayment of USD 847 million worth of initial advances.
In addition, the three letters were issued to guarantee the execution of the works of the design and construction contract of the third set of locks of the program of Panama Canal expansion project.
As a result, the canal authority is entitled to a recovery of additional advances worth USD 299.6 million.
In addition, the authority continued stating that the execution of the letter was issued by UniCredit AG, the London branch, to make sure of the payment of USD 13.1 million owed by GUPC, and that it expects to receive the payment during the next few days.
Moreover, Salini Impregilo, GUPC partner, addressed that its pro quota contract advanced payments, equal to a principal amount of USD 217 million, will be paid immediately from its available cash resources.
Although GUCP was awarded with USD 3.2 billion project to expand the canal in 2009, it resulted to constructing the project with a higher price.
