DECADE No. 15367/1957

The Expropriation of Gas Companies will be resolved

Buenos Aires, 21/11/1957

VISTO Expediente N° 20.444/55 and the previous actions produced, detailing the processes carried out by the Company Primitiva de Gas de Buenos Aires Ltda., to resolve the existing situation arising from the expropriation carried out in 1945, and the offer of transaction formulated by the legal representatives of the Company; attentive the opinion of the Procuration of the Treasury of the Nation dated 30 September

CONSIDERING:

That in the year 1945 agencies of the Nation took possession of the goods of the Primitive Company of Gas of Buenos Aires Ltda., depositing the sum of three million seven hundred fifty-eight thousand seven hundred forty pesos with twenty-one cents national currency (m$n. 3,758,740,21), which then elevated to the ten-seven million one hundred forty-seven thousand seven hundred thirty-one pesos.

That in 1948 it was also taken possession of the goods of the Gas Company of the Province of Buenos Aires depositing the sum of a million six hundred forty-one thousand five hundred twenty-four pesos with twenty cents national currency (m$ 1,641,524,20);

That the deposited amounts were notoriously lower than those subsequently fixed by the designated experts, who established sums that, if they had paid at the time of the inauguration, would have meant the expropriated Company the possibility of rotating to its shareholders the following approximate totals: nine million six hundred and eighty thousand pounds (£ 9.680.000) according to the perito del parte exproprida, three million seven hundred thousand pounds sterling (£ 3.700.000.-) according to the perito of the expropriant and six million five hundred thousand pounds sterling (£ 6.500,000.-) according to the perito third rate;

That the statement of delay suffered by the judicial process requires the provision of interest and costs that would significantly increase the final amount to be paid by the State;

That the characteristics of this case, in which agencies of the Nation took possession of private property without having paid the corresponding compensation after twelve years, make it appropriate for a government action to put an end to it;

That all of this emphasizes the desirability of considering a transactional offer that, based on judicial experts, eliminates both interest payments and costs that, otherwise, would gravitate on national heritage;

That the matching reports of all officials who have studied this matter in their various aspects suggest an end to this situation;

That in the years 1952, 1954 and 1955 and on the basis of protocols added to the respective conventions, the national authorities made commitments to the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to give this problem an adequate and expeditious solution;

That the processes that have been carried out in full and the advantages achieved in them lead to the conviction that they have managed to reduce to the minimum possible the claims of the expropriated Company, which accepts the figure of two million sixty thousand nine hundred fifty pounds sterling (£ 2.060,950) as the final balance for the whole of the expropriated goods, price whose reasonableness is corroborated by the consequences of the judicial proceedings, with the advantage already noted;

That the amount to be paid will be paid in ten (10) contributions, without interest, over five years, resulting in a marked benefit in the current circumstances;

That the questions raised and pending between the Municipality of the Capital and that Company, must have a concordant and complementary solution to which is specified in this resolution without affecting the rights of the Municipality;

That for this purpose the fourteen million two hundred eleven thousand eight hundred sixty-eight pesos with sixty cents national currency ($ 14,211,868,60 national currency) currently deposited with the order of the National Special Judge César Verrier, Ministry of the Pastor, and that they were seized by the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires in the judgment that it promoted against the Buenos Aires Company, Ltd. To this end, the Primitive Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. It shall provide the Government of the Nation with all the elements of trial and evidence in its power for the exact determination of the sum to be paid to the Municipality;

For this reason, and attentive to what is dictated by the Procurator of the Treasury of the Nation:

The Interim President of the Argentine Nation,

Decrete:

Article 1 - Authorize the Procurator of the Treasury of the Nation to formalize with the primitive Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. and Gas Company of the Province of Buenos Aires Ltda. a transaction that puts an end to the outstanding issues on the grounds of the expropriation of the assets of such Companies, carried out by the Government of the Nation.

Art. 2nd - To that end the payment in London, by the Government of the Nation, of the total unmovable sum of two million sixty thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds sterling (£ 2.060.950), as follows: two hundred and six thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds sterling (£ 206,950) within thirty days of the transaction and the balance in new equal semi-annual quotas of two hundred six thousand lire sterlings (£ 206,000) each, which will not accrue interest.

Art. 3° - The payment of the amount will be made by deposit of the two hundred six thousand nine hundred fifty pounds sterling (£ 206,950) to the order of the Primitive Company of Gas of Buenos Aires Ltda. in the Bank of England in London and for the payment of the fees, the Argentine Government will issue in favor of the Company uncountable and payable certificates in the Bank of London itself, to its presentation.

Art. 4° - These are transaction conditions:

(a) The fact that all payments are made without interest and that the costs of all trials and issues are paid in the order caused, by the payment of the commons by halves.

(b) That the Private Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. give its conformity to the withdrawal by the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires of the sum of fourteen million two hundred eleven thousand eight hundred sixty-eight pesos with sixty cents national currency (m$n. 14.211.868,60) deposited to the order of Judge Doctor Verrier, Pastor Secretariat.

(c) That the Primitiva Company of Gas of Buenos Aires Ltda. desist of the trial currently underway against the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires that processes before the Civil Court No. 5, Bunge Secretariat.

(d) That the Private Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. The company of Gas of the Province of Buenos Aires takes charge of the liquidation and pays to the Company of Gas of the Province of Buenos Aires the proportion that the latter corresponds to the agreed payment, leaving record of the total sum in free sterling, based on the case of the Company Primitiva de Gas of Buenos Aires.

(e) That the Private Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. transfer, without charge to the state or to the administrative entity indicated, all the trade marks inscribed to its name even if they are not included in the inventory that served as the basis for expropriation.

(f) That the company Primitiva de Gas de Buenos Aires Ltda. desist of the opposition pending the registration of the tide “Acarogas”, which is the subject of trial, promoted by the Directorate of State Gas, today Gas del Estado.

(g) May the Private Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. make available to the National Government or the administrative authority designated by it, all the accounting books, documents and evidence necessary for the exact determination of the rights of the Municipality, whose recognition and payment is taken by the Government of the Nation.

(h) That the Primitiva Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. expressly declare that with the payments provided by this decree all the claims that the Primitiva Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda are cancelled. as the Gas Company of the Province of Buenos Aires could have for the value of the expropriated goods and for the direct or indirect consequences arising from the dispossession of the goods transferred definitively to the Argentine National State.

(i) That the Government of the Nation subrogates to the Primitiva de Gas Company of Buenos Aires Ltda. in the payment of the amounts that legally corresponds to pay to the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires, according to the contracts of concession, laws and ordinances that governed the relations between the Primitiva Company of Gas of Buenos Aires Ltda. and the Municipality.

(j) That the amounts that the Company Primitiva de Gas de Buenos Aires Ltda. to pay in our country for expenses and fees for your charge, are set off from the amount of two million sixty thousand nine hundred fifty pounds sterling (£ 2.060.950) established in Article 2 to the exchange rate prevailing in the official market, at the date the transaction is formalized. For this purpose, the last contribution of two hundred and six thousand pounds sterling (£ 206,000) referred to in Article 2° will be guaranteed.

Article 5 - The present decree shall be endorsed by the Provisional Vice-President of the Nation and the Ministers Secretary of State in the Departments of Trade and Industry, Finance, War, Aeronautics and Marina.

Art. 6 - Contact, publish, give to the General Directorate of the Official Gazette and archvese.

ARAMBURU. – Isaac Rojas. – Julio C. Cueto Rúa. – Adalberto Krieger Vasena. – Victor J. Majó. – Jorge H. Landaburu. – Teodoro Hartung.