Abertis is negotiating with Ferrovial to buy the 76.28% that the group chaired by Rafael del Pino has in Autema (Terrassa-Manresa Highway)the concessionaire that operates the C-16 toll road between Sant Cugat (Vallès Occidental) and Manresa (Bages), in Catalonia, according to market sources familiar with the process. The company owned by ACS and the Italian Mundys controls 23.72% of the operator and seeks to acquire 100% of the capital with this acquisition. Both companies have declined to comment.
The C-16 registered 17,270 vehicles per day on average in 2023, 4.3% more than in 2022. With this, Autema’s income rose to 69 million9.6% more, while the gross operating result (ebitda) amounted to 61 million, 11.8% more. In addition, the company had a debt of 588 million at the end of 2023.
The concession, whose ownership corresponds to the Generalitat of Catalonia, dates back to 1986 and extends until 2036, so there are still 12 years of exploitation remaining. Ferrovial took over the concession together with several financial entities (Pension Fund -La Caixa-, Banco Hispano Americano and Banc Catalá de Crédit -Banesto-, which sold their shares in 2001 to Acesa, the seed of Abertis.
The C-16 is one of the last toll roads in Catalonia after the reversal carried out in recent years of several sections of the state highway AP-7 and the regional highways C-31 and C-32 that Abertis managed. The highway, 48.3 kilometersconnects San Cugat del Vallés with Manresa, passing through Terrassa. It links various high-capacity road axes, such as the AP-7, the Transversal Axis of Catalonia C-25, the C-58 and the C-55 highway and is part of the European Axis called E-9 that connects Barcelona and France.
The sale and purchase of Autema by Abertis and Ferrovial has been an issue that was discussed years ago without success, but now the parties are close willing to reach an agreement and thus put an end to the differences they have faced in recent years, according to the same sources. In fact, Ferrovial sued Abertis before the Court of First Instance number 22 of Barcelona for the discrepancy regarding the monetization of the inflation derivative (ILS) through which Autema would have distributed a dividend and to which Abertis opposed it at an extraordinary meeting held in the summer of 2021.
With the takeover of 100% of Autema, Abertis seeks to align the asset with its vocation of having control of its highways. Likewise, the company frames the operation in its strategy to reinforce its asset portfolio to offset the loss of business caused by the reversal of several concessions in Spain (AP-7, AP-4, C-31 and C-32 ), especially Brazil or Chile.
In the coming years, it also faces the expiration of other contracts in Spain, Chile, Italy or India and in the medium term (2031 and 2033). They also end in France its main concessions in the world.
The Spanish market is where the company led by José Aljaro, as CEO, has carried out its latest acquisitions. Thus, in December 2023 it agreed to purchase 100% of the Camino Highway from the UBS infrastructure fund for 110 million euros, as elEconomista.es reported. It meant incorporating a shadow tollcompared to the traditional focus of managing toll highways.
Recently, the firm of Catalan origin has also acquired from the French fund Ardian the 49% that it did not control in Trados 45, operator, also with shadow toll, of the Eje O’Donnell to N-IV section of the M-45, in Madrid . In this case, the price would have exceeded 50 million euros.
Asset turnover
The group chaired by Juan Santamaría, CEO of ACS, is working on renewing its portfolio in a context in which opportunities in the markets in which it operates are limited and in which competition, especially from the funds , is voracious. At this point, the infrastructure firm seeks bilateral negotiations in markets such as the United States.
It is also eyeing options in Chile or India. In the Andean country, last August Abertis was awarded a new concession for Route 5 Santiago-Los Vilos with an investment of 1,000 million euros. Before, in 2023, it took over four highways in Puerto Rico for almost 2,700 million and bought 56.7% of SH-288, in Texas (United States), from ACS for more than 1,400 million, but a few months ago the Texan authorities rescued the concession early, promoting a million-dollar hole in the accounts of the Spanish operator.
Ferrovial, for its part, would advance with Autema in its mature asset rotation strategy and would divest itself of its last toll highway in Spain – in 2022 it sold the 15% it had left in the Autopista del Sol to Meridiam.
In recent months Ferrovial has sold its British airports, its vertiport subsidiary and has divested from several concessions in Spain, Canada, Ireland and Scotland, allying itself with Interogo, the property of the owners of Ikea. Among them is the A-66 Zamora-Benavente highway.
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