EUROPE. Spanish highways and infrastructure company Abertis Infraestructuras has agreed to a merger with Italian rival Autostrade in a blockbuster €14 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The agreement creates a new giant in the transport sector, spanning sectors from toll roads to airports.
A statement issued this morning said Abertis will absorb Autostrade to create a company with a market value of about €24 billion, with 20,000 employees in 16 countries. It said the deal will create a “balanced portfolio of infrastructure investments (airports, parkings and media and telecommunication infrastructures) with additional growth opportunities around the world”.
It added: “The integration approved by Autostrade and Abertis’ Board of Directors will create, through the merger of the two leading Italian and Spanish sector players, the world leader in the motorway sector, best in class for the construction and management of infrastructures, particularly focused on transport infrastructure.”
The new entity will be listed on the Milan and Madrid Stock Exchanges.
The Autostrade Group is the largest concessionaire in Europe for the construction and management of toll motorways and connected traffic services. In Italy about 4 million people, equal to 8% of the population, use the group’s network every day.
Abertis Chief Executive Salvador Alemany will be CEO of the new company. Holding company Schemaventotto, controlled by Italy’s Benetton family and holder of a 51% stake in Autostrade, will be the largest single shareholder of the new entity, with 24.9%. The Italian and Spanish sides will have equal representation on the board, and there will be Co-Chairmen and Co-Vice Chairmen, the statement said.
Pertinently the Benetton family, through a holding company, also owns 57.09% of the share capital of Autogrill, the owner of HMSHost and co-owner of Spanish travel retailer Aldeasa.
The agreement is set to have profound implications for the airports sector as well as other sectors.
In 2005 Abertis created Abertis Airports, which brings together the group’s stakes in the airport industry, as well as future shareholdings in the sector. Abertis Airports owns the group’s two airport infrastructure management companies, ACDL and Codad. Via ACDL (90% Abertis and 10% Aena Internacional), Abertis manages the British airports operator TBI.
TBI is a British group which operates (under concession or as owner) in eight international airports:
Europe: Three in the UK (London Luton, Cardiff and Belfast International), which provide 85% of EBITDA, and one in Sweden (Stockholm Skavsta).
US: Orlando Sanford.
Latin America: Three airports in Bolivia (La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba).
Additionally it manages, on behalf of governments and local authorities, five further airports (Atlanta, Burbank and Miami in the US, Toronto in Canada and San José in Costa Rica).
TBI’s main asset is London Luton, one of the main airports of London. Luton handles passenger traffic of 8 million per year and is an operational base for Europe’s leading low-cost carriers.
More details soon.
