CFE notifies IFT about the creation of a trust to pay Altán’s debt

Last September, Expansión reported that the CFE created an “administration and payment source trust” as a result of a tender. Its constitution was carried out on April 28, 2022, in which year the federal government decided to rescue Altán from its bankruptcy, with a capital injection of 388.1 million dollars.

The CFE would have created the trust as a protection mechanism for Altán, in case it finds itself in dilemmas to settle the financial commitments it has with its creditors such as Huawei, Nokia, AT&T, América Móvil, Operbes de Televisa and Telefónica, among others. Although Altán has shown operational improvements and even the possibility of financial balance by 2025, the economic risk persists.

The purpose of the trust is for the CFE to transfer financial resources to Banco Azteca so that the banking entity can then manage the payment of the debt with each of Altán’s creditors, the Quetzal plan documents detail.

The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) plans to acquire Altán’s debt, which amounts to more than 30,000 million pesos, through a plan that may not be favorable for all creditors.

The CFE proposal includes paying only 10% of the debt to more than 80 creditors, while the rest would be paid between 33% and 100% of the debt, with immediate liquidation.

Companies that accept the CFE offer must assign their rights to the bankruptcy debt reached with Altán in the 2022 financial restructuring.

This means that they would only receive the amount assigned by the CFE through a trust managed by the banking institution, according to the documents consulted. So far, not all creditors have accepted the company’s proposal, now public.

A source with knowledge of the matter told Expansión that the only private investor that would still remain within the Altán Redes operation would be Morgan Stanley, as part of the majority control of the State, through the CFE. This would imply that Altán would still operate under the Public-Private figure.