Macquarie Group Limited has announced its intention to sell down a portion of its stake in Macquarie Atlas Roads (MQA) as per the request for trading halt lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

MQA has also received notice requesting the issuance of 12,645,164 MQA securities to its manager/adviser Macquarie Fund Advisers Pty Limited. 

MQA has been informed by Macquarie that following both the selldown and the issuance of securities relating to the performance fee, Macquarie’s relevant interest in MQA is anticipated to be approximately 11%.

Macquarie has advised the MQA Boards of its continuing support of MQA. The MQA Boards remain committed to MQA’s long term strategy of growing distributions, strengthening the balance sheet and increasing total returns to security holders.

MQA is a global infrastructure developer and operator and it was created out of the portfolio reorganization of Macquarie into two separate ASX-listed toll road groups, MQA and Intoll.

MQA seeks to invest in global infrastructure assets that generate stable cash flows and offer resilient long-term performance through economic cycles. Its primary focus remains on supporting organic growth within its existing portfolio assets, which are well positioned to benefit from further improvements in the underlying economic conditions in France and the US. 

MQA has interests in four international toll roads:

• Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR), a toll road network located in the east of France
• Dulles Greenway, a toll road located in northern Virginia, USA
• Warnow Tunnel, a toll tunnel located in Rostock, Germany
• M6 Toll, a toll road located in the West Midlands, UK