Technical Committee Gives Green Light To Alterra Proposal
A six-member technical committee in Costa Rica has deemed "feasible" a proposal from the International Finance Corporation-led group of banks and capital San José's Juan Santamaría international airport operator Alterra Partners.

The proposal would extend airport operator Alterra's us$172 million concession to modernize the airport, but had to be resubmitted because it contains modifications to the proposal originally submitted to civil aviation board CTAC in January.

The report issued by the six-member committee - consisting of two representatives from CTAC, two representatives from public management contract inspector OFGI, and two representatives from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - recommended approving these modifications.

The changes would extend Alterra's contract to operate at Juan Santamaría from 20 to 25 years, and provide the company a nine-year extension to pay off its us$90 million debt to the IFC, pushing its repayment deadline back to 2024, from the original 2015, the paper reported.

"We hope that the CTAC does not diverge from the technical committee's finding, approves the report and sends it in the form of an addendum to the national comptroller to be ratified, enabling us to continue with the airport modernizations," Alterra corporate affairs director Fernando Lara said.

Up until 2003, creditors had provided us $90 million for the project, but decided to freeze funding in that year due to a lack of certainty as to the repayment of the debt and the changing of conditions by the government.

Alterra claims to have lost us$18.7 million in revenue due to changes in how much it could charge in tariffs, raising doubts over whether it would have the necessary funds to pay back its loans, and leading the company to initiate legal proceedings against the government.

If the IFC-led group's proposal is approved, Alterra would renew its concession to modernize the airport, but if it is rejected, the concession would be terminated within seven months and the creditors would need to look for another contractor to complete the project, previous reports indicated.