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N.S.C. Agua, S.A. de C.V. | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2016
Investments In and Advances To Affiliates, Schedule Of Investments [Abstract] |
Investments in and Advances to Affiliates, Schedule of Investments [Text Block] | 8. N.S.C. Agua, S.A. de C.V. In May 2010, the Company acquired, through its wholly-owned Netherlands subsidiary, CW-Cooperatief, a 50% interest in NSC, a development stage Mexican company. The Company has since purchased, through the conversion of a loan it made to NSC, sufficient shares to raise its ownership interest in NSC to 99.9%. NSC was formed to pursue a project (the “Project”) that originally encompassed the construction, operation and minority ownership of a 100 million gallon per day seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant to be located in northern Baja California, Mexico and accompanying pipelines to deliver water to the Mexican potable water system. As discussed in paragraphs that follow, during 2015 the scope of the Project was defined by the State of Baja California (the “State”) to consist of a first phase consisting of a 50 million gallons per day plant and a pipeline that connects to the Mexican potable water infrastructure and a second phase consisting of an additional 50 million gallons of production capacity. Since its inception, NSC has engaged engineering groups with extensive regional and/or technical experience to prepare preliminary designs and cost estimates for the desalination plant and the proposed pipeline and prepare the environmental impact studies for local, state and federal regulatory agencies, and has also acquired the land, performed pilot plant and feed water source testing and evaluated financing alternatives for the Project. Through a series of transactions completed in 2012-2014, NSC purchased 20.1 hectares of land on which the proposed Project’s plant would be constructed for an aggregate price of approximately $20.6 million. In 2012 and 2013, NSC conducted an equipment piloting plant and water data collection program at the proposed feed water source for the Project under a Memorandum of Understanding (the “EPC MOU”) with a global engineering, procurement and construction contractor for large seawater desalination plants. Under the EPC MOU, the contractor installed and operated an equipment piloting plant and collected water quality data from the proposed feed water source site in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico. The EPC MOU required that NSC negotiate exclusively with the contractor for the construction of the 100 million gallon per day seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant and further required payment by NSC to the contractor of up to $500,000 as compensation for the operation and maintenance of the equipment piloting plant should NSC not award the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Project to the contractor. This first phase of the pilot plant testing program was completed in October 2013. NSC decided not to extend the EPC MOU beyond its February 2014 expiration date and NSC paid the contractor $350,000 during 2014 as compensation for the operation and maintenance of the pilot plant. In November 2012, NSC entered into a lease with an effective term of 20-years from the date of full operation of the desalination plant, with the Comisión Federal de Electricidad for approximately 5,000 square meters of land on which it plans to construct the water intake and discharge works for the plant. The amounts due on this lease are payable in Mexican pesos at an amount that is currently equivalent to approximately $20,000 per month. This lease may be cancelled by NSC should NSC ultimately not proceed with the Project. In August 2014, the State enacted new legislation to regulate Public-Private Association projects which involve the type of long-term contract between a public sector authority and a private party that NSC is seeking to complete the Project. Pursuant to this new legislation, on January 4, 2015, NSC submitted an expression of interest for its project to the Secretary of Infrastructure and Urban Development of the State of Baja California (“SIDUE”). SIDUE accepted NSC’s expression of interest and requested that NSC submit a detailed proposal for the Project that complies with requirements of the new legislation. NSC submitted this detailed proposal (the “APP Proposal”) to SIDUE in late March 2015. The new legislation required that such proposal be evaluated by SIDUE and submitted to the Public-Private Association Projects State Committee (the “APP Committee”) for review and authorization. If the Project was authorized the State would be required to conduct a public tender for the Project. In response to its unsolicited APP Proposal, in September 2015 NSC received a letter dated June 30, 2015 from the Director General of the Comisión Estatal de Agua de Baja California (“CEA”), the State agency with responsibility for the Project, stating that (i) the Project is in the public interest with high social benefits and is consistent with the objectives of the State development plan and (ii) that the Project should proceed and the required public tender should be conducted. In November 2015, the State officially commenced the tender for the Project, the scope of which the State defined as a first phase to be operational in 2019 consisting of a 50 million gallons per day plant and a pipeline that connects to the Mexican potable water infrastructure and a second phase to be operational in 2024 consisting of an additional 50 million gallons per day of production capacity. NSC submitted its tender for the Project on the April 21, 2016 tender submission deadline date set by the State. The Company has acknowledged since the inception of the Project that, due to the amount of capital the Project requires, NSC will ultimately need an equity partner or partners for the Project. Consequently, NSC’s tender to the State for the Project was based upon the following: (i) NSC will sell or otherwise transfer the land and other Project assets to a new company (“Newco”) that would build and own the Project; (ii) NSC’s potential partners would provide the majority of the equity for the Project and thereby would own the majority interest in Newco; (iii) NSC would maintain a minority ownership position in Newco; and (iv) Newco would enter into a long-term management and technical services contract for the Project with an entity partially owned by NSC or another Company subsidiary. On June 15, 2016, the State designated the consortium comprised of NSC, NuWater S.A.P.I. de C.V. and Degremont S.A. de C.V. (the “Consortium”) as the winner of tender process for the Project and set August 15, 2016 as the deadline for the negotiation of a definitive public-private partnership agreement between the Consortium and the State. Despite the designation of the Consortium as the winner of the tender process, the Consortium may not be able to finalize and execute an acceptable definitive public-private partnership agreement with the State. The Consortium will be required to obtain debt financing commitments for the Project prior to the execution of the definitive public-private partnership agreement, and such financing may not be available on terms acceptable to the Consortium. Furthermore, even if executed, the definitive public private partnership will not be effective until the following conditions are met:
| · | the State has established and registered various payment trusts, guaranties and bank credit lines for specific use by the Project;
| · | CEA has obtained the rights from the relevant federal authority to take and desalinate seawater and distribute it for municipal use;
| · | various water purchase and sale agreements between CEA, the payment trusts and the Tijuana, Mexico municipal water utility have been executed;
| · | a permit has been obtained from the relevant federal authority to discharge the residual water from the Project’s desalination plant; and
| · | All financing agreements necessary to provide funding for the Project have been executed.
If the Consortium is ultimately unable to proceed with the Project, the land NSC has purchased may lose its strategic importance as the site for the Project and consequently may decline in value. If the Consortium does not proceed with the Project, NSC may ultimately be unable to sell this land for an amount equal to or in excess of its current carrying value of approximately $20.6 million and any loss on sale of the land, or impairment charge NSC may be required to record as a result of a decrease in the fair value of the land, could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s results of operations. Included in the Company’s consolidated results of operations are general and administrative expenses from NSC consisting of organizational, legal, accounting, engineering, consulting and other costs relating to NSC’s project development activities. Such expenses amounted to $875,000 and $475,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and $1,642,000 and $1,012,000 for the six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The assets and liabilities of NSC included in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets amounted to approximately $22.0 million and $357,000, respectively, as of June 30, 2016 and approximately $22.0 million and $488,000 respectively, as of December 31, 2015. NSC Litigation Immediately following CW-Cooperatief’s acquisition of its initial 50% ownership in NSC, the remaining 50% ownership interest in NSC was held by an unrelated company, Norte Sur Agua, S. de R.L. de C.V. (“NSA”). NSA subsequently transferred ownership of half of its shares in NSC to EWG Water LLC (“EWG”) and the other half of its shares in NSC to Alejandro de la Vega (the “individual shareholder”). In February 2012, the Company paid $300,000 to enter into an agreement (the “Option Agreement”) that provided it with an option, exercisable through February 7, 2014, to purchase the shares of NSC owned by the individual shareholder, along with an immediate power of attorney to vote those shares, for $1.0 million. Such shares constituted 25% of the ownership of NSC as of February 2012. In May 2013, NSC repaid a $5.7 million loan payable to CW-Cooperatief by issuing additional shares of its stock. As a result of this share issuance to CW-Cooperatief, the Company acquired 99.9% of the ownership of NSC. The Option Agreement contained an anti-dilution provision that required the Company to issue new shares in NSC of an amount sufficient to maintain the individual shareholder’s 25% ownership interest in NSC if (i) any new shares of NSC were issued subsequent to the execution of the Option Agreement and (ii) the Company did not exercise its share purchase option by February 7, 2014. The Company exercised its option and paid the $1.0 million to the individual shareholder to purchase the Option Agreement shares in February 2014. In October 2015, the Company learned that EWG had filed a lawsuit against the individual shareholder, NSC, NSA, CW-Cooperatief, Ricardo del Monte Nunez, Carlos Eduardo Ahumada Arruit, Luis de Angitia Becerra, and the Public Registry of Commerce of Tijuana, Baja California in the Civil Court located in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico. In this lawsuit, EWG is challenging the capital investment transactions that increased the Company’s ownership interest in NSC to 99.9%. EWG requested that the court, as a preliminary matter: (a) suspend the effectiveness of the challenged transactions; (b) order public officials in Mexico to record the pendency of the lawsuit in the public records; and (c) appoint an inspector for NSA and NSC to oversee its commercial activities. The court granted, ex-parte, the preliminary relief sought by EWG, which resulted in the placement of inscriptions for the lawsuit on NSC’s public records. EWG is also seeking an order directing: (i) NSA, NSC and CW-Cooperatief to refrain from carrying out any transactions with respect to the Project; and (ii) NSA, NSC and CW-Cooperatief, and the partners thereof, to refrain from transferring any interests in NSA, NSC and CW-Cooperatief. On April 5, 2016, NSC filed a motion for reconsideration with the Tecate, Mexico Court asking, among other things, that the Court; (i) reverse its order to record the pendency of the lawsuit in the public records, (ii) cancel the appointment of the inspector, and (iii) allow NSC to provide a counter-guarantee to suspend the effects of the Court’s order regarding the challenged transactions. On April 26, 2016, the Tecate, Mexico Court issued an interlocutory judgment (i) ordering the cancellation of the inscriptions on NSC’s public records and (ii) rejecting NSC’s motion for cancellation of the appointment of the inspector. The Court’s decision regarding NSC’s request to provide a counter-guarantee is pending. On May 17, 2016, the Company filed a claim with the Third District Court in Matters of Amparo and Federal Trials in the City of Tijuana, Baja California (the “Amparo Court”) challenging the Tecate, Mexico Court ex-parte order which appointed an inspector over NSC’s commercial activities. On July 29, 2016, the Amparo Court found that such appointment is unconstitutional and reversed the Tecate, Mexico Court’s appointment of an inspector. On April 26, 2016, NSC filed a full answer to EWG’s claims rejecting every claim made by EWG. The Court’s response on this matter is pending. The Company believes that the claims made by EWG are baseless and without merit, will vigorously defend NSC and CW-Cooperatief in this litigation, and will seek dismissal of the orders entered by the court and all claims against NSC and CW-Cooperatief. Furthermore, in November 2015, NSC and CW-Cooperatief filed a complaint in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York against EWG and its managing Partner based upon the Company’s conclusion that lawsuit filed by EWG in Mexico directly breaches a contract dated April 12, 2012 between NSC and CW-Cooperatief and EWG. The Company is vigorously pursuing its claims and seeking relief pursuant to this complaint. The Company incurred legal fees in connection with this litigation of approximately $143,000 and $339,000 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016. The Company cannot presently determine the outcome of this litigation. However, such litigation could adversely impact the Company’s efforts to complete the Project. Mexico Tax Authority The Mexico tax authority, the Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (“SAT”), assessed NSC for taxes relating to payments to foreign vendors on which the SAT contended should have been subject to income tax withholdings during NSC’s 2011 tax year. As of December 31, 2015, the assessment and related penalties, surcharges, inflation adjustments and late fees totaled 7,367,875 Mexican pesos. Such assessments were equivalent to approximately $428,203 as of December 31, 2015 based upon the exchange rate between the United States dollars and the Mexican peso. NSC retained the assistance of Mexican tax advisers in this matter, as it believed the assumptions and related work performed by the SAT did not support their tax assessment. As a result, NSC elected to contest this assessment in Mexico federal tax court. NSC was required to provide an irrevocable letter of credit which amounted to 7,367,875 Mexican pesos as of December 31, 2015 as collateral in connection with this tax case. The restricted cash balance of $428,203 included in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2015 represented the US dollar equivalent of Mexican pesos on deposit with a bank to secure payment of this irrevocable letter of credit. In November 2014, NSC received a favorable judgment from the tax court. Based on this outcome, the SAT filed an appeal shortly thereafter to contest the judgment. On February 15, 2016, NSC received a favorable judgment from the appellate tax court and shortly thereafter obtained the release of the Mexican pesos cash balance that had been restricted and pledged as collateral as of December 31, 2015 for the irrevocable letter of credit.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for the information summarizing investments in and advances to majority-owned subsidiaries, other controlled companies, and other affiliates. It reflects specified information about ownership, financial results from, and financial position in such entities. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 946 -SubTopic 320 -Section S99 -Paragraph 6 -Subparagraph (SX 210.12-14) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=50485924&loc=d3e611322-123010 + Details
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