A La Prensa article headlines the potential profit the winning bid can make on the canal expansion project to be between 10-12% profit or about $300 million. While another article by stock analyst, S. McCoy, on a Spanish website that monitors stock values raised questions about the financial stability and bid price motivation of one of the companies in the consortium that won the bid for the expansion of the canal.
A brief mention of this concern was made in La Prensa today, but was treated as not a problem by the ACP, who said they have safeguards in place should the company not deliver. The Spanish article also brings up the question of the big differences in the winning bid and the two others which was significant and characterized it as "recklessly low". According to the analyst, he believes Sacyr Vallehermoso low balled it in order to bring their share price up in the wake of losses in the real estate market to which they have been exposed. The stock price rose significantly after the winner was announced. He also said there is "widespread skepticism that they can accomplish the impossible". You can read the story in Spanish here at Cotizallia.
Excerpt from La Presna:
But another consideration was the financial position of each company involved in the three consortium's. The financial position of one company in particular, Spanish firm Sacyr Vallehermoso, which was the lead of the winning consortium, has raised concerns because of its exposure in the Spanish real estate market.
Jorge Quijano, director of the Canal expansion project, said that the commission eventually decided that the overall financial strength of the consortium outweighed any potential problems with an individual company. He added that appropriate safeguards will be put in place to protect the project in case a company is unable to do the work.
