Italy's Gruppo Gavio has paid around US$573 million to win joint control of Brazilian toll road operator EcoRodovias Infraestrutura & Logística by acquiring a 41 % indirect stake in the company.

Gavio and Primav, the current owner, which is controlled by Brazil's Almeida family, will create a new company that will control EcoRodovias. Gavio will own all non-voting shares of the new company and 50 percent of voting shares. The Almeida family will continue to elect the chairman of EcoRodovias, current Chairman Marcelino Rafart de Seras remaining in his post.

Primav will contribute its 64 percent stake in EcoRodovias and a 55 percent stake in a monorail project to the new vehicle, which will have debt of 2.6 billion reais. Primav will keep a 23 % stake in Ecorodovias through the vehicle.

The deal valued EcoRodovias at 11 reais a share, implying a significant premium to the current market price.

The agreement will help the Almeida family to repay 2 billion reais in bank loans that it took to buy out Impregilo SpA, its former partner in EcoRodovias, three years ago. 

EcoRodovias owns a network of around 1,860 Km of toll roads through eight concessionaires, mostly based in the state of Sao Paulo.

Nomura and PwC were the financial and tax advisors to Gruppo Gavio. Chiomenti Studio Legale and Pinheiro Neto Advogados were legal advisors to the buyer. Leigh Fisher ad TTC provided traffic analysis to Gruppo Gavio.