Salinas Pliego must pay 580 million dollars to foreigners: Court

Televisión Azteca, owned by magnate Ricardo Salinas Pliego, must pay its creditors in the United States more than $580 million it owes, after a collegiate court revoked the protection given to it since 2020 by a Mexico City Judge on the grounds of the COVID pandemic.

-Information in development

Mexico City, October 22 (However).– A Civil Matters Court based in Mexico City revoked the sentence of the judge who protected TV Aztecafrom the businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, not to pay the 400 million dollars to foreign creditors, whose interests amount to more than 580 million dollarsas reported by SinEmbargo.

The Tenth Collegiate Court in Civil Matters of the First Circuit resolved to annul the precautionary measures dictated by the Judge Miguel Ángel Robles Villegas who used the pandemic as a pretext to authorize Salinas Pliego not fulfill your debt to creditors. The ruling establishes that the measures decreed were excessive and impreciseby generally suspending the effects of the contract.

This case originated from a bond issuance contract entered into between TV Azteca and a New York bank. After it issued a notice of early maturity of the debt due to alleged non-compliance, the company filed an ordinary commercial trial in which it requested the annulment of the notice and the temporary suspension of its payments, arguing that the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic constituted a “fortuitous event” or “force majeure” that justified the failure to comply with its obligations.

This Monday’s ruling is based on criteria of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation that
They specify that extraordinary situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, do not automatically exempt from compliance with contractual obligations, since for the figure of a fortuitous event or force majeure to operate, its elements must be fully accredited in accordance with the law.

Akin, the legal firm that advises those affected, has denounced that TV Azteca used a “secret procedure” to obtain a precautionary measure from Judge Miguel Ángel Robles Villegas to extend the payment of 580 million dollars to investors in the US, despite presenting “false and easily refuted reasons” such as pointing out that due to the COVID-19 pandemic it could not pay its debt.

The debt began in 2017, when the television station issued 400 million dollars (more than seven billion pesos) in debt securities with the agreement to pay interest semiannually at an annual rate of 8.25 percent, but in 2021 it stopped complying. US investors, through subsidiaries incorporated in the Cayman Islands, acquired these debt bonds, which have been increasing to date.

Due to lack of payment, the investment fund managers Cyrus Capital Partners and Contrarian Capital Partner filed an arbitration in June 2023 against the federal government under the framework of the T–MEC and now request direct dialogue with the Executive to reach an agreement.