Rescue plan for docks giant

7 September 2004

MADRID – The Spanish authorities were finalising a rescue plan Tuesday for the country’s publicly-owned Izar docks group involving splitting military and civilian docks and allowing private finance at some sites, official sources said.
  
The Izar group, which employs 10,700 people, has been in crisis since EU authorities demanded in May that it repay EUR 300 million (USD 362 million) of EU aid which Brussels regarded as breaching competition rules.

The European Commission may additionally demand that Izar reimburse more than EUR 600 million of additional aid, according to SEPI, the Spanish government industrial holding society which owns the country’s ten publicly-owned docks.

A SEPI spokesman claimed Izar’s own funds came to not more than EUR 270 million.

SEPI chairman Enrique Martinez Robles was to outline the restructuring plan Tuesday evening to unions.

According to SEPI, the military docks, which have more orders than their civilian-use counterparts, will be maintained under the umbrella of a public company and continue to receive public subsidies.

Some private funding is to be injected into some of the civilian sites.

According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the Boluda group is looking at Seville in southern Spain while General Dynamics may invest in Manises, near the eastern coastal city of Valencia.

With strong competition from Asia, dockers at Sestao in the northern Basque region, the northern coastal city of Gijon and Seville have demonstrated in recent days to demand their sites stay within the public sector.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news