According to sources, Abertis has plans to submit a bid for the acquisition of Britain's only toll motorway, the M6 Toll road.

The deal could be part of the investment strategy of Abertis, which currently has an investment capacity of €4 billion (US$4.44 billion). This transaction could be closed for approximately €2 billion (US$2.22 billion). 

The road is currently owned by a consortium of 27 institutional investors and banks, including Commerzbank and Credit Agricole, which took over the asset under a debt restructuring deal in 2013.

The M6 toll road is part of the national network and was built by Midland Expressway, 100% owned by the Macquarie Atlas Roads. The project had an initial investment of £900 million (US$1.27 billion) and opened to traffic in December 2003, on budget and six weeks ahead of schedule.

In December 2013, the asset was refinanced by its previous owner Macquarie Atlas Roads. The refinancing involved extending the maturity of the debt until 2020. Macquarie Atlas Roads receives a small annual fee for continuing to manage the asset but it will not receive further equity distributions from the project as all surplus cash flows from the asset will be applied to service the new debt. The route's concession ends in 2054.

It is thought that the owners of the M6 Toll in the West Midlands want to take advantage of a jump in the number of vehicles using it in recent months to sell it off. 

The amount of traffic using the road increased 12.6 per cent in 2015, to 17.4m vehicles. Around 48,000 vehicles a day used the route during the fourth quarter of 2015.