Abertis continues to seek opportunities in the business of highways – Yahoo Finance Spain

MADRID (Reuters) – Abertis said Monday he wants to strengthen its motorway concessions business and looking for investment opportunities, particularly in international markets

In a significant event, Abertis said there are no concrete plans, but added that it has sufficient financial resources to undertake these investments.

Abertis came out with this statement by a passing information published in the newspaper Expansion, stating that the company will use the funds that captures the IPO of its subsidiary Cellnex to buy new motorways.

According to Expansion, Abertis would have a capacity of over 4,000 million investment euros, of which about half will come from the placement of a 60 percent stake in Cellnex.

Abertis currently has 8,300 kilometers of highways divided between Brazil (the main market) Spain, France and Chile.

According to Expansion, Abertis has its eyes now on Itínere, owns six highways 600 kilometers in northern Spain and owned by an infrastructure fund Citi, the builder Sacyr and several regional banks.

“The novelty is the possible interest in Itínere, where according to the article the difficulties of the operation lies in the structure of debt,” said Banc Sabadell Monday in his morning note.

The net financial debt of Itínere totals some 2,750 million euros, equivalent to 20 percent of net financial debt Abertis.

Another possible target could be, according to the newspaper The Italian operator Serenissima (146 kilometers between Padua and Brescia.

Abertis already has a presence in this market through its subsidiary Cellnex, thanks to the recent agreement with the Italian mobile operator Wind (Cart 7,400 cell towers) will generate more than 50 percent of their income in Italy.

Unable to speak immediately with Abertis official sources. The company said at the shareholders meeting last month that wants to continue to promote internationalization and “actively continue to analyze new acquisitions, with an eye to North America and Europe.

For the year course, Abertis initially expected investment of 1,100 million euros, two thirds of which will go towards improving their highways in Brazil and France and 25 percent to the development of satellites for its subsidiary Hispasat.