The Washington D.C. Court of Appeals ordered Argentina to pay over US$390 million to hedge fund Titan Consortium in the ongoing lawsuit over the expropriation of the country’s flag carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas in 2008.
The Columbia District Court upheld a lower tribunal’s ruling by rejecting an appeal made by the Argentine state demanding Titan Consortium’s lawsuit be dismissed.
The administration led by ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner ordered the expropriation of Aerolíneas Argentinas in 2008, which prompted a lawsuit from stakeholder Marsans.
In late 2001, three companies within Spanish group Marsans took over airlines Austral and Aerolíneas Argentinas, which had been privatized in 1987 and 1990, respectively (Austral was absorbed into Aerolíneas Argentinas in 2020). Marsans bought them via Spanish company Air Comet, which owned Interinvest, the Argentine holding company that owned the airlines.
In 2008, Marsans filed a lawsuit before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) accusing the country of unlawfully expropriating their investment by passing executive actions and legislation that confiscated their shares. This violated the treaty between the country and the company, they said.
