Ardian, the world’s leading private investment firm, together with the Chilean Fund Manager, CMB, agreed to acquire a 33% stake in a Chilean toll road business from Brookfield Infrastructure. The business that is being acquired is comprised of a 100% interest in Vespucio Norte Express and Túnel San Cristóbal in Santiago de Chile.
Vespucio Norte Express is a critical urban express highway in Santiago de Chile with 29 kilometers of extension of a multi-lane road (3X3) with a free flow system, which border the city from the north-east to the south-west connecting two of the city’s wealthiest areas to the industrial side of the capital.
Túnel San Cristóbal in Santiago de Chile is a 4 kilometers toll tunnel expressway in Santiago, which includes two uni-directional (2×2) tunnels that connect the district of Providencia with the district of Huechuraba. Both districts are densely populated with consolidated commercial areas. The remaining concession life of these two assets are 14 and 18 years respectively.
Juan Angoitia, Senior Managing Director at Ardian, said: “The Chilean concession system has a long and consistent history of development, fostering very productive and valuable public-private partnerships based on a robust legal framework system. The Chilean concession system has become a cornerstone of the economic development of the country. The acquisition of two key assets in the urban toll road system of Chile’s capital is a strategic milestone for Ardian Infrastructure, a world leading investor in the road sector”.
The transaction is Ardian’s Infrastructure first investment in Chilean transport sector. Ardian is already active in the energy sector in the country. Asset Chile acted as financial advisor and Baraona Fischer & Cia as legal counsel to Ardian and CMB. The closing of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary regulatory and other approvals.
Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of 96 billion dolares managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. Ardian maintains a global network, with more than 620 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul). It manages funds on behalf of around 970 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.
CMB is Chile’s largest and most experienced infrastructure fund manager, with over 25 years of successful experience in greenfield and brownfield investments in the country. CMB has over 540 million dolars in assets under management and has completed 17 investments in multiple infrastructure assets. CMB recently raised its third infrastructure fund, which is the largest of its kind in Chile. CMB is part of Larrain Vial, the leading independent investment bank in the Andean region with over 84 years of investment management experience in Latin America.
For Funds Society, Madrid