James Warren
FAMILY infighting has emerged as a potential spanner in the works for Nerja’s Maro Golf project.
It comes as a bitter feud between the main stakeholders behind the controversial development has been laid bare.
Barbara Gutierrez-Maturana-Larios, one of the four main shareholders in Larios Azucares Salsa Inmobiliaria SL, has expressed her concern over her company’s investment in the project.
Gutierrez-Maturana-Larios explained that at this moment in time, investing in a project on the scale of the new golf course and hotels is ‘impossible’ for Larios.
The plans for a golf resort, luxury hotel and 700 high-end homes were expected to cost the firm a cool €311 million, ‘an asset that the company does not have,’ said Gutierrez-Maturana-Larios.
Globally the Larios conglomerate holds assets totalling around €600 million and is one of the largest real estate owners in Andalucia.
Despite this, Gutierrez-Maturana-Larios insists the company has ‘capital problems’.
Along with her sister Christina and mother Barbara Kalachnikoff, she has entered a stand off with fellow shareholders, including brother, majority shareholder and CEO of Larios, Carlos Gutierrez-Maturana-Larios Altuna.
The disagreements have come over the running of the company.
Tensions have run so high that Barbara is pushing for the company to go into liquidation, a decision that is currently in the Constitutional Court after being proposed in 2017.
Gutierrez-Maturana-Larios said: “We are not anonymous entrepreneurs in Malaga. We have a responsibility for our history.
“And making a project that does not raise the quality of the province or its employment is pointless.
“Starting a project like this and leaving it halfway can be a disaster.”
Opposition against the project has mounted in the last week, with a declaration of 16 rejections submitted to the regional government by Ecologists in Action.
Councillor for Urban Planning in Nerja, Nieves Atencia, has also issued a statement calling for calm over the project, and criticising the ‘dirty’ tactics of the opposition groups.
She insisted that no agreement has yet been reached between Larios SL and Nerja Council and that dialogues are still taking place.
She urged protest groups to also ‘be more responsible and to change their behaviour for a more constructive attitude, instead of seeking media prominence.’
