An ICSID tribunal has ordered Argentina to pay more than US$320 million plus interest for nationalising two airlines more than a decade ago – with the claimants’ third-party funder Burford Capital set to receive around US$140 million from the award.
In a nearly 400-page award dated 21 July, a majority tribunal upheld claims by three insolvent member companies of Spanish travel group Marsans that the nationalisation of their interests in Aerolíneas Argentina and its sister airline Austral in 2008 violated the Argentina-Spain bilateral investment treaty.