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Argentina Recommends Four-Firm Consortium for CBI Master Agent Contract · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Argentina's Ministry of Economy has recommended awarding its citizenship by investment master agent contract to Acesorias Legal Advisor Limitada, UT Consorcio AAPA, a consortium of Apex Capital Partners, AIM Global, Passport Legacy, and Arton Capital.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: A bid evaluation report dated March 5 on Argentina's CumPR.AR procurement system places the group first with 88 points.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Henley and Partners finished second with 48.0889.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Four of the six firms that submitted offers for tender, 34-0001-CPU25, were declared inadmissible.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Only the Consortium and Henley survived.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Ministry's Legal and Administrative Secretariat, in its technical economic report, detailed the reasons for each disqualification.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hong Kong Kianchung Business Company Limited and Salzburg International for Law LLC were eliminated at the threshold stage, bid maintenance guarantees.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Citing the guarantee status report, the evaluation found that both firms have not complied with the presentation of said guarantees within the regulatory deadlines, said defect not being rectifiable, and analysis of their submitted offers is not warranted.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hong Kong Qian Cheng deposited its$1.25 million guarantee into its own account at China Construction Bank, Asia, rather than into the Ministry of Economy's designated Banco Nacion account.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: The funds did not arrive until January 30, ten days after the January 20 deadline.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Salzburg International uploaded a bank guarantee via SWIFT to the coMPR.AR system, but never presented the physical document with the required translation and certification.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Latitude Consultancy Limited was knocked out on financial solvency grounds.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Evaluators found that latitude fails to comply with the economic solvency indices established in points two indebtedness and.4 of the technical specifications.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Its indebtedness ratio came in at 1.36 against a maximum threshold of 0.50.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Its solvency ratio registered at 1.73 against a minimum requirement of 2.00.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ancova Associates, FZCO, was disqualified on two grounds.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: When asked for clarifications, the firm submitted a document titled Rectification of the Technical and Financial Proposal, which evaluators ruled constituted a modification of the original bid, something that violates the principle of immutability of offers in administrative contracting, normatively established in Article 15 of the General Terms and Conditions, approved by Resolution ONC No.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: 63-2016.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uncova also failed the minimum profit to sales ratio and did not report its contracting capacity.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Even setting aside these defects, the report adds, the offer would be economically inconvenient, a reason that would eventually exclude it from the order of merit.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Both admissible bidders met all eight content and admissibility requirements.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Technical evaluations, weighted at 60% of the total score, produced identical raw scores of 80 out of 100, yielding 48 points each after applying the coefficient.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The consortium scored high on singularity expertise and international network, and medium on experience and business plan.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Evaluators praised the interdisciplinary approach of combining four specialized firms, noting that the proposal to associate among several companies in the sector was considered an added value for the contracting party.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Senior leadership across the consortium showed between 10 and 30 years of experience in the residence and citizenship by investment space.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Evaluators observed, however, that experience documentation from some consortium members consisted largely of generic non-exclusive licensing arrangements and marketing agent roles.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Acesorias, legal advisor Limitada itself, did not report documented experience in that regard, though this was not disqualifying because the Pliego, with tender specifications, assessed the consortium as a whole.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Artan Capital Holdings Limited and Passport Legacy were credited as having recently developed and implemented programs.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hle and partners scored high on expertise, experience, and international network, but medium on Singularity and Business Plan.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Contracts and certifications from at least seven governments dating to 2017 substantiated its experience claim.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: On Singularity, evaluators found that Henley's proposed financial execution model would be cumbersome in terms of execution within the framework of the National Public Sector Financial Administration.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Its business plan was described as coherent, structured, and of global scope, though projected total costs would be elevated.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Where the bids diverged was in price.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: The economic evaluation, weighted at 40% of the total score, overwhelmed Henley's position.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: The consortium bid$10,000 per tranche across all five tranches of 1,000 applications each, totaling$50,000 for the entire contract.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hle bid$2 million for the first tranche, escalating to$8 million for the fifth, totaling$25 million.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: After applying the weighted coefficients specified in the tender, the consortium's offer produced a weighted total of$75,000.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Henley's came to$33.75 million.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Under the scoring formula, which divides the lowest weighted bid by each bidder's and multiplies by 100, the consortium received a perfect 100 on the economic component, reduced to 40 after the 40% coefficient.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Henved 0.222, reduced to 0.0889.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Final scores, Consortium 88.00, Henley 48.0889.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Three evaluation commissioners, Maria Christina Castillo, Claudia Silvana Coachello, and Martin Alexis Salomon, authorized the recommendation.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jose Garcia Hamilton, Secretary of the Legal and Administrative Secretariat at the Ministry of Economy, signed the Technical Economic Report.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: The recommendation is not yet a final award.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Under Article 73 of Decree 1030-2016, bidders may challenge the evaluation report within three days of its communication.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Once any challenges are resolved, and the contracting authority issues a formal adjudicacy on, the winning consortium will have four years, with an option to extend for a fifth or until 5,000 citizenship approval recommendations are issued to design, launch, promote, and operate Argentina's first CBI program under the Agencia de Programas de Ciudadanía por Inversión.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Program parameters, including investment thresholds, eligible sectors, and processing routes, remain undefined.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: The consortium will build these from scratch.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: This episode first appeared as an article by Amada Bas on IMIDaily.com.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe for free to the IMI newsletter for breaking news and updates from the investment migration industry, and upgrade your membership to IMI Pro to get access to our exclusive professional community, citizenship catalog, investment migration company Rolodex, private briefings, and more members only content.