Abertis and Brookfield Infrastructure acquire additional 24.2% in Brazilian toll roads
Partícipes en Brasil S.L. (51 % owned by abertis and 49% owned by Brookfield Infrastructure) and Brookfield Aylesbury S.A.R.L. (Brookfield Infrastructure's subsidiary) have jointly acquired 83,218,831 ordinary shares of Arteris S.A, the owner of several toll roads in Brazil.
Those shares are equivalent to approximately 24.2% of the total issued share capital of Arteris. The investment results from the 
previously announced mandatory tender offer that the joint venture was required to make to the holders of the 40% of Arteris not owned by the joint venture.
Brookfield Aylesbury now holds 51,332,222 shares, representing approximately 14.9% of the total issued share capital of Arteris.
Participes de Brasil, s.l has bought 31,896,609 shares delivering 12,570,477 abertis shares and a total €70,9 million of which abertis assumes 51%, corresponding to €36,2 million.
Partícipes will now hold 238,563,304 shares of Arteris, representing approximately 69.3% of the total issued share capital of Arteris.
As a whole, the offer represented a disbursement of €184,991,369 and 32,796,542 of existing abertis shares.Arteris owns nine toll road concessions in Brazil totalling 3,226 kilometres. They are located in the States of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Paraná. Four of the concessions are granted by the State of São Paulo (Autovias, Centrovias, Intervias and Vianorte), while the remaining five are part of the Federal road network (Autopista Fernão Dias, Autopista Regis Bittencourt, Autopista Litoral Sul, Autopista Planalto Sul and Autopista Fluminense).
Sam Pollock, Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Infrastructure, said:
"We are pleased to increase our ownership in these high quality toll roads. In our first year of ownership, Arteris' performance has exceeded our expectations, with toll revenues increasing by over 10% compared with the prior year. In addition, Arteris has invested over R$500 million of growth capital to widen its roads, which is expected to increase throughput going forward. We see this as an attractive opportunity to invest more capital in assets that we know well, with long-term, risk-adjusted returns within our target range of 12-15%."
Sources: abertis & Brookfield
