Tirso Celedon, president of Agronegocios Comerciales, is the Ortega-Murillo family’s main figurehead in energy and real estate businesses.
HAVANA TIMES – Agronegocios Comerciales SA (Commercial Agribusinesses, in English), a front company presided over by private businessman Tirso Celedón Lacayo, was the vehicle used by the Ortega-Murillo family in 2013 to acquire the state-owned electricity distribution companies Disnorte and Dissur, valued at US$140 million.
In February 2013, Disnorte and Dissur were acquired from Fenosa Natural Gas by two Spanish companies, TSK and Melfosur, who formed a consortium to execute the transaction. Both companies were dedicated to the construction of electrical substations, but neither had any experience in the distribution business.
In fact, the energy distribution business passed into the hands of Agronegocios Comerciales SA, a corporation whose president and main shareholder is Tirso Celedón, a businessman and architect who acts as a frontman for the private businesses of the presidential couple, moving hundreds of millions of dollars of Albanisa’s capital, obtained from the anomalous diversion of Venezuelan governmental aid to Nicaragua.
The Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo dictatorship has blocked public access to the Commercial Registry, where the company’s deed is registered. However, CONFIDENCIAL confirmed that the legal representative of Agronegocios Comerciales is the executive of Albanisa, Bernardo Aráuz, and that his address is Lomas de Monserrat Casa A-15, also owned by Albanisa.
Spanish companies made the purchase but didn’t become owners
At the beginning of 2013, the local subsidiary of Fenosa Natural Gas, complying with a previous decision of its Board of Directors, began to look for a buyer for 84% of the shares of Disnorte and Dissur, the companies responsible for the distribution and commercialization of electricity in Nicaragua.
The news of the sale surprised executives of the Nicaraguan electricity sector, but they were even more surprised to learn that the buyer selected was the TMI consortium, made up of the two small Spanish companies, TSK and Melfosur, dedicated to the construction of electrical substations.
A source that offers advice to companies dedicated to the electricity business recalled that neither TSK nor Melfosur were dedicated to managing distribution systems, either in Spain or in Nicaragua. Their expertise, he said, was limited to building electrical networks, like many other companies in the country, but “they were not owners, nor did they have experience in the management of electrical distribution companies dedicated to commercializing energy.”
The “grand prize” given to the construction company TSK-Melfosur
CONFIDENCIAL began investigating the mysterious sale of Disnorte and Dissur in 2012, detecting the first evidence that the real buyer was ALBA de Nicaragua SA, known as Albanisa, a conglomerate of companies under the control of the ruling family and created during the anomalous privatization of Venezuelan government aid to Nicaragua. In addition to the lack of experience of the newly created TMI, the consortium also lacked the financial muscle necessary for such a large endeavor.
“TSK-Melfosur was never the owner of the total shares of Disnorte-Dissur. They owned a minority, and they had a contract with the State to manage the distributor and to be the public face. The real administrator was Gustavo Acosta López of Albanisa, as the government delegate in the distributor,” a source linked to Albanisa, who asked to remain anonymous, told CONFIDENCIAL.
The source went on: “The State held 16% of the shares, while the ultimate owner was Albanisa, through Agronegocios Comerciales SA, who controlled the remaining 84% of the shares.”
Up until they appeared as owners of Disnorte and Dissur, TSK and Melfosur were two companies dedicated to the construction of electrical networks and substations. In fact, TSK only developed two projects in 2011: the 230 kV Sandino Masaya transmission line, and the Sandino substation and Masaya 230 Kv substation bay; and two others in 2012: the Anillo de Occidente 138 kV transmission line, and the 44 MW Eolo Wind Farm substation.
The situation improved substantially in 2013 and 2014, when the company was awarded six projects in total. Then, in 2014, it was awarded the construction of three substations.
Albanisa and Francisco “Chico” Lopez
When asked who the ultimate owner of the energy distribution and commercialization companies is, an executive in the energy sector corroborated the assertions of the Albanisa source, saying that “Everyone knows, and everyone has known since 2012, that the real owner of Disnorte and Dissur is PDVSA [the Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company], together with Albanisa.” These entities simulated the transaction so that TMI would appear as the buyer of the two companies.
“If you put in zero dollars, and everything you use to buy something is lent to you by someone else, the real owner is not you,” the energy executive explained. He said this was the financial e