Damien Kantor
01/27/2021 19:53
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 01/27/2021 9:49 PM
If there is no last minute unforeseen event, the show promoter and owner of Fénix Entertainment and Rock & Pop, Marcelo Fígoli,
will be the next owner of Parque de la Costa
.
At the close of this edition,
lawyers for both companies were negotiating the last details
for the transfer of assets (land, games and the rest of the facilities) and also unpaid debts for
an amount close to $ 1,000 million,
a figure subject to the conditions and commitments of the disbursements.
The agreement would be announced this week, according to
sources linked to the operation
told
Clarín
.
The Parque de la Costa was inaugurated in 1997 together with the Tren de la Costa.
It belongs to SCP (Sociedad Comercial del Plata), a holding company led by businessman Ignacio Noel (the owner of Morixe) and has more than 12,000 shareholders.
Due to the pandemic, the company claimed that its "
growing losses are impossible to face
" and warned that the business was "unviable".
Strictly speaking, it has not generated profits since 2015 and in 2019 the company presented
a balance with a red of US $ 270.7 million.
It accumulates
debts that exceed US $ 30 million
and is in call for creditors.
Those numbers do not scare Fígoli
.
In the sector, Fígoli is described as
a controversial businessman
.
With a long career as a music producer, in 2016 he created Alpha Media, a group that
bought several media outlets on the verge of bankruptcy
, including Rock & Pop, Rivadavia, Splendid (La990), Colonia and the Noticias Argentinas agency.
The Ecopark (former Zoo) tender was also awarded, in which it was the only bidder and Live Shows, the company name of Fénix and which produced several international events (Shakira, Daddy Yankee, Rod Stewart and the last exhibition of Roger Federer, among others)
is in call of creditors
.
Revitalizing the Parque de la Costa represents a challenge.
In addition to the pandemic, year after year the
public was losing
, and "40% of the income is used to pay taxes (National, provincial and municipal) and the remaining 60% are salaries and social charges," described a source from the holding company. .
In addition, he said that "they face 57 labor lawsuits."
Today it has almost 500 employees, who fear for its stability.
"Fígoli wants to transform the company and the parks
are very attractive in the entertainment business
," explained an executive from his kidney.
The crisis in Parque de la Costa, exposed at the end of last year, set off alarms in the Buenos Aires governorate and in the municipality of Tigre, where the property is located.
In fact, Sergio Massa himself expressed his concern about the issue.
For each case, the Deliberative Council of Tigre
approved the cancellation of the tax debt
(for a total of $ 14 million).
And in addition, the Buenos Aires Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to exempt the property from the payment of Gross Income and Real Estate for two years.
All subject to the continuity of the operation and the jobs.
The Parque de la Costa was inaugurated in 1997 together with the Tren de la Costa under the auspices of the Menem government.
Throughout its history, it
never managed to prosper as a profitable business
, but it did manage to position itself as the leading center of entertainment in the country.
In 2013, also beset by its chronic debt problems, the Tren de la Costa was nationalized during the government of Cristina Kirchner.
According to the latest balance sheet presented by the company,
in 2019 it received 800,000 visitors
, well below the 2.5 million it had in its best years.
SCP's proclaimed goal was to go out of business anyway.
In addition to Fígoli, the other interested party was a Spanish investment group also linked to the entertainment industry.