SOUTH AMERICA

Manta concession loses only bidder

10 years ago

Walter Solís has been forced to quit his job as Ecuador’s Minister of Transport and Public Works following his strategic error in extending the bidding process for the Port of Manta by a further 60 days.

As a result, the only confirmed bidder, Chile’s Agunsa, decided to withdraw its earlier privately presented offer.

Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, described the blunder as an “unforgiveable error”.

The extension had been granted following lobbying by both local politicians and businessmen that disliked the Chilean proposal.

The offer presented by Agunsa on September 21 for the 40-year concessionaire to operate the Port of Manta was worth a reputed $164.5m. Investment would have been divided into two distinct phases.

Phase one would have involved payments of $60.6m, divided among dredging ($12.5m), infrastructure ($26.5m) and equipment ($21.6m). The significantly larger $103.9m phase two would have seen infrastructure spend of $53.5m.

However, those opposed to the bid claimed that for the first 30 years of the concession, Agunsa would have kept draft at Manta at the present level of 12 metres and it would not have been until the 40th year of the concession that the new 14-metre draft would have been available.