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Spanish business group sells its construction company and leaves Argentina amid the crisis caused by Milei
Construction is one of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis and a new company is leaving Argentina. Which international firm is leaving the country?
A global construction company leaves the country
Since Javier Milei became president, the country has entered an economic crisis and one of the sectors hardest hit is one that was fundamental for growth in recent years: construction. In this context, an important global firm of Spanish origin has left the country.
This is a company belonging to a Spanish group that, faced with the halting of construction work, sold its stake in a national construction firm in which it held the majority of the shares.
The company in question is Dragados, a company of the Spanish group ACS, headed by the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez. The company sold its stake in the Argentine construction firm Dycasa and thus formalized its exit from Argentina.
Dycasa is a company specialized in the construction of large public and private infrastructures and has 50 years of experience in Argentina, but President Javier Mileis policies to end public works put the company in check.
As a result of the economic crisis, Dragados sold 66.1 percent of its shares and 88.8 percent of its voting rights to Inversora Mercedes SA, for a total of 2 million dollars. Inversora Mercedes is a recently formed company formed by Juan Ignacio Abuchdid, founder and CEO of Grupo IEB (Invertir en Bolsa), specialized in finance; Martín Pablo Gándara, owner of the Atomik clothing brand, and Ezequiel Martín Fernández, director of Natal Inversiones.
In March of this year, the companys workers suffered a severe setback when the company closed its plant located in San Pedro and laid off all its employees. There it had a staff of qualified workers such as mechanics, electricians and foremen.
Public works
Construction is one of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis.
Construction entrepreneurs ask for an increase in the 2025 Budget for the sector.
The head of the Argentine Chamber of Construction (CAMARCO), Gustavo Weiss, warned of the lack of recovery in the sector and announced that in order to "maintain the existing infrastructure" it is necessary to quadruple the funds allocated in the 2025 Budget, within the framework of the paralysis of public works.
«Public works in the 2025 Budget have a 0.7% investment (of the GDP) on the gross product, which is totally insufficient for the maintenance of the existing infrastructure,» warned Weiss, in dialogue with habrá Consecuencias, by El Destape 1070. In that sense, he specified that «the sector needs four times more» funds than that foreseen in the project that the Ministry of Economy sent to Congress on September 15, that is, «3%» of the GDP, although that is only to «maintain the existing infrastructure.» On the other hand, «if we want to do new works, such as expanding a road, that requires additional funds» even above 3%.
Weiss warned about the drop in employment in the sector, which is unable to recover from the layoffs. "In terms of activity, we are still down 24% year-on-year, and in terms of employment we lost nearly 120,000 workers year-on-year in July. They have not recovered, but the loss is not increasing either. If there is no strong development of infrastructure works, I do not think there will be an immediate recovery," he said. |
