A group of renewables investors can seize control of a property in an affluent London neighborhood owned by the Spanish government in a bid to enforce a more than €120 million ($132 million) arbitration award, a judge ordered.
The investors — Infrastructure Services Luxembourg Sarl and Energia Termosolar BV — can take the land on Portobello Road in Notting Hill, according to a High Court decision dated August 2. The site houses a bilingual Spanish school, whose building used to be a Dominican convent.
The funds, which invested in a solar facility in 2008, claim Spain owes them millions in lost incentives to invest in renewable projects in the country. Spain started luring funds with more attractive terms in 2007, but withdrew them after 2011 as the country sought to rein in its deficit.
“The English court’s interim charging order over the land in question, once made absolute, would entitle my clients to sell the freehold land,” Nick Cherryman, a lawyer at Kobre & Kim, who represents the funds, said.
The school, the Instituto Español Vicente Cañada Blanch, is owned and operated by Spain, according to its website.
The Spanish government, which earlier failed to claim sovereign immunity in the case, has around two months to challenge the order, according to court documents.
Spain’s Environmental Transition Ministry, which is in charge of energy policy, declined to comment on the ruling. Lawyers representing the nation also declined to comment.
