Colas Sud-Ouest, a subsidiary of Colas, has signed an agreement to sell (with conditions precedent) its 15.564% stake in the capital of Atlandes, the A63 highway concession company, to HICL Infrastructure Company Limited and DIF investment funds (9.338% will be sold to HICL and 6.226% to DIF).

DIF Infrastructure II already owned a stake in the project.

As mentioned above, Atlandes has a concession for the section of the A63 Highway between the towns of Salles and Saint-Geours-de-Maremne.

The A63 is part of the Atlantic corridor highway, the main trade axis between France, Spain and Portugal. It was opened for service in November 2013.

Other shareholders in the asset include Spie batignolles, NGE Concessions, Egis Investment Partners France and HSBC European Motorway Investments.

The project was successfully refinanced in June 2015. Atlandes signed then a €860 million (US$945.9 million) financing agreement, for a period of 25 years, with Banca IMI, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CIC, Crédit Agricole, ING Bank and Société Générale.

Colas has been a developer and partner on this project from the start. It played a major role in setting up the financial package and participated in the design process, the construction work and refinancing.

The sales agreement covers the 15.564% stake in the capital of Atlandes and the shareholder loans for a total of €98 million (US$108 million). The conditions precedent and the sale should be able to come to completion at the beginning of 2017.