ACS has reached an agreement with its partner Mundys —formerly Atlantia— to strengthen its infrastructure subsidiary Abertis in search of new investments. The construction company chaired by Florentino Pérez, which shares shares with this Italian company owned by the Benetton family and the Blackstone fund, has agreed to transfer 56% of the capital of the US highway SH-288, located in Houston (Texas) as part of this agreement. Both entities intend to promote an investment plan to strengthen their portfolio of assets under Abertis’ management.
The SH-288 motorway is valued at 2,000 million euros, so 56% would correspond to about 1,120 million euros. The transaction is subject to the corresponding government permits, as reported by the multinational chaired by Florentino Pérez.
New administration for Abertis
The agreement includes a new governance scheme for Abertis, through which both partners will appoint the twelve members of the board in equal parts, as well as the appointment of the top executives. Mundys will continue to appoint the Chief Executive Officer and Secretary of the Board of Directors, and ACS the Chairman and Chief Financial Officer.
ACS has stressed that these changes will not imply any modification in the method of consolidation of Abertis in both groups, so that Mundys will continue to consolidate Abertis globally in its financial statements, while the ACS group will continue to collect its investment as participation by equity. “This agreement marks a new stage in the trajectory of Abertis, which has demonstrated over time a solid and sustainable leadership in the transport infrastructure sector”, has defended the Spanish company.
Abertis will go shopping
Thus, both ACS and Mundys have committed to promoting an investment plan that will expand the portfolio of assets under management and promote growth and value creation for Abertis, which will continue to explore new investment opportunities, trying to maintain an “optimal” capital structure in line with the requirements of credit rating agencies.
“The new agreement with Mundys is an important milestone for the development of Abertis. From ACS, we will support with all our resources the growth of our alliance with Mundys to continue strengthening our leading platform in the world of infrastructures. I want to thank our partners Edizione, its president Alessandro Benetton and Blackstone as well as all the teams that have worked on this new agreement that will give stability to Abertis”, said Florentino Pérez.
For his part, the vice president of Mundys and president of Edizione (the Benetton investment heart), Alessandro Benetton, thanked Florentino Pérez “for choosing to take on this ambitious challenge” with them.
