The Plus Ultra scandal has broken all our plans. We had asked Sepi for help several months ago because nobody wanted to finance us anymore and now we find ourselves in a dead end. The Sepi has paralyzed all the files, its directors are scared and do not dare to do anything after the Plus Ultra fiasco. We have no choice but to look for other alternatives, which are much more painful.
This tourism entrepreneur tells us about his desperation after several months of waiting for public aid that was announced with great fanfare by the Government and that may remain in limbo. In the Sepi aid waiting room there are companies as important as Villar Mir, Abengoa, Tubos Reunidos, Air Nostrum, Hesperia, Hotusa, Room Mate, Celsa and so on up to fifty entities, mainly from industries related to the tourism sector, which has been the hardest hit by the pandemic.
The Sepi rescue fund was created ten months ago, with 10,000 million euros, as a mechanism of last resort for strategic companies hit by the crisis and in need of financial oxygen, but on the condition that they enjoy good economic health before of the pandemic. A requirement that, of course, is not met by Plus Ultra, which has been losing money since its foundation ten years ago, which has a couple of planes, which barely operates half a dozen routes to Latin America and which has close ties with Venezuelan businessmen. How could Sepi approve aid of 53 million for such an unknown company?
This award is wrapped in a great mystery to the point that a Madrid judge has opened an investigation for a possible crime of embezzlement against 15 senior government officials, including the Secretaries of State for the Treasury, Inés Bardón, and for the Economy, Ana of the cave. The judge – who has demanded from Sepi the complete file processed to grant the aid to Plus Ultra – says in her order that “the facts present characteristics that suggest the possible existence of a criminal offense.”
This scandal has caused Sepi to carefully review all the files presented and even re-examine the aid that was about to be approved, so its concession will take time. In addition, the Sepi has put all its processes under review after the appointment on March 30 of Belén Gualda as president. This paralysis leaves several companies on the verge of bankruptcy and turns the aid fund into an ineffective mechanism. There are companies that started the process six months ago and are still waiting for a response.
Since its launch last summer, aid has only been approved for a total of 968 million, less than 10% of the amount of the fund, and there are only four benefited companies: Air Europa (475 million), Ávoris (320 million) , Duro Felguera (120 million) and Plus Ultra (53 million). It is also noteworthy that of the four scarce grants granted so far, two of them have gone to companies in which Globalia has a stake: Air Europa and Ávoris.
The number of companies that have requested the public rescue does not stop growing and is already approaching fifty. The Catalan steel company Celsa has requested 700 million, Hotusa 320 million, Abengoa 250 million, Villar Mir 240 million, Tubos Reunidos 115 million, Hesperia 55 million and Room Mate 53 million. These are the most outstanding, but in total there are requests for 4,000 million euros that have now been left in the dry dock. March 16 was the last day that the Council of Ministers approved a rescue, that of the Ávoris travel agency company.
Some companies have already gotten tired of waiting for Sepi because they are in a limit situation and have looked for other alternatives although, of course, they are financially much more expensive. This is the case of Room Mate, the hotel chain of Kike Sarasola and Sandra Ortega, which has obtained an urgent loan of 15 million to avoid bankruptcy. The loan is from Atitlan, the investment fund directed by Roberto Centeno, son-in-law of the owner of Mercadona. Room Mate, which with this loan can survive until the summer, will have to repay those 15 million within a year with an interest close to 10%. This is a much higher price than that financed by traditional banks, but these have turned off the tap to the hotel industry due to the impact of the pandemic on company finances.
Sepi’s delays also cause significant reputational damage to the business of the petitioning companies, which are forced to make their financial embarrassments public during a long bureaucratic process that prolongs their agony. Some of these companies ask that instead of prior analysis, which greatly slows down approval, they opt for the system used by other European countries, where aid is granted very quickly and is justified a posteriori within a period of 12 months.
France, Germany and Italy have shown greater dynamism in giving aid to companies they consider strategic and, for example, have injected billions of euros to save large airlines such as Air France, Lufthansa and Alitalia. Spain, on the other hand, has choked on the pair of Plus Ultra planes.
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