Company: TCMFF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001104659-25-019133
Chunk: 13

Company: TELECOM ARGENTINA SA
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 13
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 impacting Telecom’s margins and/or ratios.
Argentina has a hyperinflationary economy, and there is no assurance that inflation rates will not rise further in the future. Furthermore, the INDEC has experienced periods of political intervention that raised serious concerns about the reliability of its published data. As a result, at the end of February 2024, a London Court of Arbitration ordered Argentina to provide US$337 million in bonds to proceed with a lawsuit regarding the calculation method used for a series of debt bonds known as “GDP coupons.” The claim, initiated by a number of investment funds, alleges that the former administration led by Cristina Kirchner, with Axel Kicillof as Minister of Economy, changed the base year for calculating economic growth in 2013 to avoid triggering a GDP coupon payment. This coupon, established in Argentina’s 2005 debt restructuring, was designed to incentivize creditors to participate in a swap by promising additional payments for each year in which Argentina’s GDP grew by more than 3%.
On October 15, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom dismissed Argentina’s appeal against the first-instance ruling. The Court of Appeal in London had previously denied Argentina leave to appeal. As a result, Argentina has no further legal recourse and is ordered to pay €1,330 million (US$1,443 million), plus applicable interest, in damages and indemnities related to the “GDP-coupons” case in the United Kingdom. Future political intervention in the INDEC could jeopardize the agency’s autonomy and therefore affect the reliability of its published statistics.
In addition, during last three years, various factors in the international economic and financial context, such as the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas, and the turbulence in international financial markets caused by rising inflation, particularly in the United States and Europe, had a negative impact on emerging economies such as Argentina. See “—Argentina’s economy contracted during 2023 and 2024. Continued deterioration of domestic and international economic conditions may result in further economic contraction in Argentina, which could adversely affect our operations”. For example, inflation in Argentina raised significantly during 2023, reaching the highest monthly inflation of over 25% in December 2023, when the Milei administration took office. With the Milei administration, inflation experienced a notable decrease, attributed to the policies of fiscal adjustment, control of monetary issuance and economic opening implemented. The CPI variation was 117.8% in 2024, 211.4% in