CWCO - Consolidated Water Announces Settlement of Dispute with Mexico Regarding Playas de Rosarito Baja California Desalination Project | Benzinga
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, June 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CWCO), a leading designer, builder and operator of advanced water supply and treatment plants, announced today that on May 29, 2024 (the "Settlement Date") it settled the previously disclosed dispute between the Company's wholly-owned Dutch subsidiary, Consolidated Water Coöperatief, U.A. ("CW-Coöperatief") and the United Mexican States ("Mexico") relating to the termination by Mexican governmental authorities of a public-private partnership agreement (the "APP Contract"), under which CW-Coöperatief's indirect Mexican subsidiary Aguas de Rosarito, S.A.P.I. de C.V. ("AdR") was to develop, build and operate a desalination plant and its accompanying pipelines in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California (the "Project"). Under the settlement agreement, CW-Coöperatief's Mexican subsidiary N.S.C. Agua, S.A. de C.V. ("NSC") will sell the 20.1 hectares of land on which the Project's plant was to be constructed, including related rights of way (the "Land"), and certain documentation owned by NSC relating to the Project ("Project Documentation") for an aggregate price of MXN$616,144,000 (or approximately US$36,351,000 based upon the MXN$-US$ exchange rate published by the Bank of Mexico on the Settlement Date).
The dispute arose when, on June 29, 2020, Mexican governmental authorities sent a notice to AdR terminating the APP Contract and inviting AdR to submit a request for the reimbursement of Project-related expenses in accordance with the APP Contract and Mexican law governing the APP Contract. AdR disputed the lawfulness of the termination and submitted a reimbursement request on August 28, 2020. On April 16, 2021, CW-Coöperatief notified Mexico that a dispute had arisen between CW-Coöperatief and Mexico under the Agreement on Promotion, Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Mexico (the "Treaty"), in connection with the termination of the APP Contract and AdR's reimbursement request.
On February 7, 2022, CW-Coöperatief submitted a Request for Arbitration to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID"), requesting arbitration of the dispute under the Treaty (the "Arbitration"). On May 10, 2022, CW-Coöperatief and Mexico agreed to postpone the appointment of the arbitral tribunal in the interest ...