Panama Ports sweetens the pot with $150 million

The  Panama Ports Company (PPC) since May 21 sent the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) two pot-sweetener checks with an extraordinary contribution of $150 million.

PPC delivered the checks with future transaction payments that were supposed to be unsecured did it a month before its contract was renewed for the next 25 years and while the AMP told the country that its board of directors was in permanent session, analyzing the request for an automatic extension for the port company to continue operating Balboa and Cristóbal.

The delivery of the checks was reported in Official Gazette 29316-B of June 25, 2021, in which the AMP resolution that supports the automatic renewal of the contract was published.

The contribution of $150 million is broken down as follows: $83 million correspond to 10% of the shareholding; $20 million in dividends paid in advance for the next five years, and a contribution of $27 million in dividends receivable from PPC, to “show solidarity in these critical times”; in addition to another contribution of $20 million for an educational program of the Government.

The $83 million corresponding to the 10% shareholding comes from profits that were accumulated over time and that had not been distributed. The compensation was made just before the contract expired, in 2022.