(Finance) – Abertis, the world’s leading infrastructure management group, has won the tender in Puerto Rico for the modernization, management and maintenance of four new toll highways for the next 40 years. L’concession payment offer of 2,850 million dollars presented by the Group was the most competitive among the proposals presented in the tender.
The new concessions will be managed by leveraging the operational efficiency of Metropistas, Abertis’ subsidiary in Puerto Rico, of which it is the majority shareholder. With this new award, Abertis will manage, pursuant to Puerto Rico’s public-private partnership law, the PR-52, PR-66, PR-20 and PR-53 highways, which will be added to those already managed previously in Porto Rico, like the PR-22, the PR-5 and the Teodoro Moscoso bridge.
Shareholders will contribute 1,300 million euros to support the financing of this operation in Puerto Rico and the acquisition of SH-288 in Houston (Texas), maintaining an optimal capital structure, in line with Abertis’ commitment to maintaining its credit rating. The operation will also be financed with new bank debt and with the liquidity available in the company. This contribution is part of the new strategic collaboration agreement between Mundys and ACS to strengthen Abertis’ global leadership in transport infrastructure concessions.
The closing of the operation will take place by the end of the year. From that moment on, the concession will begin to operate according to Metropistas’ standards in terms of operation, safety, quality and sustainability, based on the experience accumulated by Metropistas in managing infrastructure in Puerto Rico over the last 12 years.
With this operation, Abertis realizes its strategy of growth and increase in cash flows, demonstrating once again the financial flexibility and the quality of its asset management in an efficient and sustainable way, as well as its ability to continue extending life average concessions of its assets.
This concession increases Abertis’ exposure to the US market, in line with its long-term strategy of maintaining a balanced portfolio – with a mix of strong currencies such as the US dollar – investing in countries with a stable legal framework and maintain your current credit rating.
Essential and strategically positioned assets
The PR-52, PR-66 and PR-20 highways are highly strategic and connect to the San Juan metropolitan area, while the PR-53 is located in the southern and eastern parts of the island. All of these assets, which represent more than 60% of the island’s tolled traffic, provide important connections between the most densely populated areas.
These routes will be managed through a Free Flow or barrier-free tolling system, which offers important benefits to users by improving safety, increasing capacity, optimizing the level of service of the lanes and reducing emissions of polluting gases by users. In the case of PR-52, it includes managed lanes (Dynamic Toll Lanes), the use of which guarantees the flow of traffic through a dynamic toll system that regulates tariffs based on traffic conditions in real time. The system uses video technology to identify collisions and includes a system for communicating with drivers through electronic signals.
The new toll highways have a strong historical traffic performance, with an increase of 8% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. They generated $153 million in revenue in 2022.
The user profile of this motorway mostly corresponds to light vehicles that travel daily for work reasons, for which it is very useful to have a motorway that allows you to optimize travel times. This is a motorway that will have a maintenance investment plan in line with Abertis quality standards, without a significant expansion cost to be achieved.
Puerto Rico has a strong, organized, and well-developed legal system, in which U.S. federal laws are generally enforced. The island has demonstrated strong resilience in recent years, overcoming challenges such as Hurricane Maria and COVID-19, situations in which a rapid recovery in traffic has been observed.
Metropistas in Puerto Rico
Metropistas formalized the first public-private partnership 12 years ago with Law 29 of 2009, on which the structure of the current concession is based, largely because it was a precedent of proven success. In 10 years, the Metropistas group has demonstrated its proven experience in managing public-private agreements globally, managing $200 million in investments to improve the conditions of these highways and the safety of users.
Metropistas will apply its experience and precedents in this new milestone in the history of Puerto Rico to improve mobility, the quality of infrastructure and offer quality solutions for the benefit of motorists on the more than 1,000 km of additional lanes that pass through 26 municipalities.
José Aljaro, CEO of Abertisexpressed his satisfaction with the entry of this new asset into the Group and declared that “we have a solid and proven commitment to Puerto Rico since the construction of the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge. For 20 years, Abertis has worked closely with the Government of Puerto Rico to improve the condition of the island’s road infrastructure and provide the safety and convenience that users deserve. Furthermore, This operation represents an important strengthening in one of our priority markets, the American one, and it is confirmation that our growth strategy is the right one. This achievement forms part of the new strategic partnership agreement reached last July between our shareholders, Mundys and ACS, which supports the Group’s strategies to expand its concessions portfolio and strengthen its global leadership in the infrastructure sector.”
“The new investment platform defined by Mundys and ACS last July is starting to work and produce the first results. victory in the race in Puerto Rico demonstrates that Abertis, thanks to its new structure and the quality of its management, now has what it takes to be highly competitive on international markets. Together with our shareholders at Edizione and Blackstone we will continue to promote sustainable growth of our Group, giving priority to the quality of the services offered to users, technological innovation and the sustainable management of present and future assets” declared Andrea Mangoni, CEO of Mundys.