The CEO of Canal Isabel II, Mariano González Sáez, announced in the last session of the Commission for the Environment, Agriculture and Interior of the Community of Madrid the intention of the Madrid public company to "divest" in the subsidiaries of the group outside the Spanish capital, including Lanzarote. "If there is a possibility of initiating a sale process, it will be initiated," he added during his speech.
The head of Canal Isabel II explained that "we do not know when it will be possible because it does not only depend on the will of those who want to divest, but on those who want to invest in those assets." As La Voz had advanced, the parent company of Canal Gestión Lanzarote is considering transferring the control of the island's water to another company, in a context of more than 64 million euros in economic losses.
During his speech at the session held on Tuesday, February 18, the councilor of Más Madrid, Alejandro Sánchez Pérez, pointed out that Canal Isabel II maintains more than 200 million euros in losses in the different subsidiaries of the group, distributed in Lanzarote, Barranquilla (Colombia), Dominican Republic, or Brazil, where also the purchase of the Emissao group led to the indictment of the former Madrid president Ignacio González (PP) in the judicial case Operación Lezo, which investigates whether public funds were diverted to accounts of members of the party in the Community of Madrid.
For the deputy Alejandro Sánchez, the case of Canal Gestión Lanzarote is "the tip of the iceberg" and has indicated that the auditor of the accounts of Canal Extensia, which concentrates the Latin American subsidiaries of the group, availed itself of "a denial of opinion" because "they do not know to what extent the accounts reflect reality or not" and "that it is not known how much money they are losing in Latin America." Specifically, Sánchez has indicated that Canal Isabel II has more than 60 million euros unrecoverable in its American subsidiaries.
"We are not going to judge the decisions taken many years ago," defended the current CEO of Canal Isabel II, who insisted on continuing to work on the restructuring of the group. "We are convinced, the current managers, to divest," but assures that it must "materialize with concrete offers," he continued. "Once we are there, we have to offer the service, comply with the contractual relations," he stressed.
In the specific case of Lanzarote, the head of Canal Isabel II has stressed that "it was decided to go there in 2013", in an agreement between the Madrid public company and the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés and "we have to provide service and with a difficulty with respect to the unfulfilled needs by the Consortium".
Finally, the CEO of Canal Iasbel II has asked: "Are we interested in leaving there? Yes, if there is a reasonable offer. Do we want to stay there? Well, if we have to stay, we will stay." He also indicated that "if the Consortium, Cabildo, comes up with doing other things or proposing bailouts, they will know, they will have to justify an administrative file, give a hearing process and we will defend the rights of the people of Madrid".
