Asset managers Meridiam and Bestinver are acquiring interests in a €484m Spanish infrastructure portfolio from local company Acciona.
The eight assets include transport, social and water projects across the country with an average remaining concession life of 18 years.
The portfolio comprises: four hospitals in Madrid, Ibiza, Vigo and Toledo, containing 3,350 hospital beds in total; two roads covering 125km; The Barcelona Law School extension which serves 7,000 students; and Canal de Navarra, a 769km irrigation system.
Meridiam will acquire leading stakes in all eight assets for €312m, while Bestinver will take minority stakes in the CM-42 Highway and in two of the hospitals for €45m on behalf of its new infrastructure fund.
Acciona said the transaction was part of a “strategy of rotating mature assets with the aim of maximising the return on capital employed, continuing to reduce the group’s financial debt and boosting new investments”.
Meridiam said it illustrated its “commitment to invest and manage infrastructure that provides essential services to communities in mobility and social infrastructure, two sectors at the heart of its development strategy”.
The company already manages three independent motorway concessions in Spain: Ausol I and Ausol II in Andalusia, interconnecting Malaga to Guadiaro, and A66, a 50km motorway in Castilla y Leon.
Meridiam also operates The Gipuzkoa Environmental Complex, a waste-to-energy project generating renewable energy sufficient to power more than 45,000 homes from recovered non-recyclable waste.
