Bruno Alves
Three banks have provided Transurban with a three-year, A$260m non-recourse debt facility to finance its acquisition of Australia’s Lane Cove Tunnel, which the toll road operator acquired for A$630m in May.
A report by Brazilian financial sector association ANBIMA says that the total volume of project finance activity grew by 431% last year, with energy representing the lion’s share of transactions.
The Colombian energy group said last Friday that it will acquire the remaining 40% of Cintra’s Chilean roads business. ISA agreed earlier this year to acquire a 60% stake in Cintra Chile for €209m.
EDF, the French energy group, has entered into exclusive negotiations with a consortium led by Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure after it submitted a bid of £5.8bn for EDF’s UK network, representing a 27% premium to its regulated asset base.
The UK-based investment and advisory group has picked up the leisure port from Spanish developer Global Via for an estimated £50m.
A board of directors meeting held at the savings bank yesterday did not yield an announcement on a possible buyout of Abertis. Recent market speculation suggests the deal is evolving away from a buyout and into a straightforward stake sale by shareholder ACS to CVC Capital Partners.
Vasco de Mello, Brisa’s chief executive, said in a results presentation yesterday that Brisa has been in contact with Abertis regarding the latter’s plans to sell its 14.6% holding in Brisa. News of the possible sale first emerged in the context of a potential buyout of Abertis by its core shareholders and CVC Capital Partners.
Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure and a team comprising Macquarie, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board submitted binding bids for the sale of EDF’s UK electricity network earlier this week.
The €1.1bn infrastructure fund has acquired a 20% stake in Italian waste treatment company Herambiente for €105.6m, with an option to acquire another 5% once the deal closes in September.
Christian Kummert, formerly head of infrastructure at Commerzbank and Eurohypo, has recently joined Austrian bank Kommunalkredit as head of its infrastructure activities.