Bolivia nationalises airport operator - FT.com Bolivia's leftwing president, Evo Morales, on Monday nationalised an airport operator owned by Spanish company Abertis. In his quest to redistribute wealth to the landlocked country's indigenous majority, the president said Abertis" local subsidiary Sabsa, partly owned by Madrid-based Aena, had failed to fulfil investment promises. Mr Morales, a former llama herder and coca farmer, said the company made "exorbitant profit" with "derisory" investments, so his government was "obliged to make this decision." Bolivia's government declared "insufficient" the company's offer to disburse $36m in the next nine years and said it had unsuccessfully negotiated an investment plan of about $56m. The measure would affect the Andean country's three international airports: the capital La Paz, the central city of Cochabamba, and the economic stronghold of Santa Cruz. According to the president, the company would be compensated according to a valuation performed by an independent arbiter within 180 days. Abertis has operated in Bolivia since 1997, notwithstanding, the privatisations during that decade are seen as having been bad for the country by a large section of the population. On Monday, Mr Morales labelled the privatisation of airports as "looting." The company said in a statement that it "respects the decision of the Bolivian government and is prepared to negotiate appropriate compensation" but that it "rejects the accusations that it has failed to fulfil investment commitments in Bolivia." This is the latest setback Spanish companies have suffered in Bolivia after the government took over electricity generators owned by Iberdrola in late December and Red Eléctrica in May last year. While Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, urged Latin American governments to respect his country's investments in the region, Spain's foreign minister, José García-Margallo, slammed the takeover as an "unfriendly act" that "would have its consequences," according to El País, the Spanish newspaper. Since Mr Morales took office in January 2006, the economy of the impoverished Andean country has been riding high on the commodities boom, which has filled the government coffers, partly thanks to the nationalisation of the hydrocarbons industry and some mining assets that produce Bolivia's main exports. In June 2012, the government revoked the Colquiri tin and zinc mining licence of Sinchi Wayra, a subsidiary of London-listed commodities trader Glencore. The self-described socialist agenda of Bolivia's first indigenous president goes along with his regional allies, the ailing Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and the recently re-elected Rafael Correa in Ecuador. But, in recent times, Bolivia's indigenous supporters have been exerting more pressure on the government to take a bigger role in the management of the country's resources. Analysts in La Paz believe that Mr Morales is worried about his increasing inability to satisfy the rising demands of the diverse social groups that form his broad power base, hence the accelerated pace of recent nationalisations. Additional reporting by Reuters.