The Government began the privatization process of Belgrano Cargas

The Government initiated the privatization process for Belgrano Cargas y Logística SA , pursuant to Decree 67/2025 of February 10. This was done through Resolution 1049/2025 of the Ministry of Economy, published this Thursday in the Official Gazette .

Through this regulation, the Ministry of Transportation, under the department headed by Luis Caputo, was instructed to conduct an inventory of the rolling stock to be auctioned, present its condition and useful life, define the composition of the batches of rolling stock to be auctioned, and specify the conditions of the auction.

Furthermore, in order to advance the bidding process for the concession of the General Belgrano, General San Martín, and General Urquiza lines and their surrounding properties, that Secretariat will have other missions.

Among these will be a survey of the current state of the roads and infrastructure projects on the routes to be awarded concessions, reporting on their progress and priority. At this point, the Secretariat will be empowered to "arrange the necessary means to terminate those contracts that are not considered priority."

It will also conduct "a survey of the surrounding properties and any other assets likely to be included in the bidding process" and "specify the conditions of the concession."

Article 3 of the document, for its part, instructed the Temporary Special Executive Unit of the Agency for the Transformation of Public Companies to "coordinate the actions necessary to comply with the provisions of Chapter II of Annex I of Decree 695 of August 2, 2024, with the objective of privatizing the company referred to in Article 1, within a period of twelve months" from the entry into force of the measure.

This same Unit will also have to "request a valuation from a banking entity belonging to the National Public Sector for future cash flows linked to the operation of the railway service, for the concessions of tracks and adjacent properties, and the concessions for the use of the workshops on the General Belgrano, General San Martín, and General Urquiza lines."

In parallel, the regulations signed by Luis Caputo stipulated that the Ministry of Transportation "will be responsible for preparing and processing the bidding, technical, and contractual documentation for the privatization of Belgrano Cargas y Logística SA, which must include the prior intervention of the Temporary Special Executive Unit 'Agency for the Transformation of Public Enterprises.'"

On the other hand, the Banco de la Nación Argentina will be authorized to "open a trust account to which the proceeds from the auction of rolling stock must be deposited."

Once the aforementioned contracts have been awarded and finalized, Belgrano Cargas y Logística SA must be dissolved and subsequently liquidated, the resolution stated in the recitals of the resolution. However, the company must first be vertically disintegrated into its business units, including: (a) Rolling Stock; (b) Tracks and Adjacent Properties; and (c) Workshops.

Belgrano Cargas is on the list of companies to be privatized, included in the Basic Law, and operates 7,600 kilometers of roads that directly impact the city and province of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, Corrientes, Misiones, Chaco, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis, and Catamarca.

It is managed through eleven production units, has eight workshops, and its wagons transport agricultural products, stone, coking coal, wood, minerals, metals, and consumer goods, in addition to other occasional cargo.

The government argued that Belgrano Cargas, "which is state-owned, is obscenely deficient and has an oversized workforce of 4,429 people, in addition to a hierarchical structure that is not commensurate with its functions."