PGGM, USS join forces to acquire Spanish infrastructure company

PGGM and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) have acquired a Spanish infrastructure company for €420m.

The investors were joined by Canadian scheme OPTrust in buying Globalvia Infraestructuras from local construction company FCC and Bankia for €166m.

The group agreed to make a further payment of up to €254m, depending on certain undisclosed conditions being met.

Globalvia runs concessions for 29 assets, including Port Torredembarra in Spain, eight Spanish railway lines and 19 tunnels and highways in countries including Andorra, Chile, Mexico and Ireland.

The consortium previously agreed to loan €750m to Globalvia, with PGGM and OPTrust arranging a €200m loan each in 2011, followed by a €350m loan involving all three investors in 2013.

As a result of the loan agreement, the consortium was allowed to match an offer put forward by Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian government’s strategic investment fund.

In a statement, the consortium said: “We are delighted to acquire 100% of GVI on these terms. The transaction represents the next logical phase of our investment, and we look forward to growing the business in the future.”

Maurice Wilbrink, spokesman for the €187bn PGGM, said the asset manager had contributed €300m to the convertible loan by 2013.

He declined, however, to provide details about PGGM’s stake in Globalvia or elaborate on the returns it expected.

“Our investment is for the long term, and we expect a stable cashflow,” he said.

PGGM recently took an undisclosed stake in a venture to design, finance, construct and maintain a sea lock to be built at IJmuiden, entrance to the port of Amsterdam.

The manager’s CIO for private markets, Ruulke Bagijn, also recently told IPE of PGGM’s desire to grow its holdings in assets that fall in between private equity and infrastructure.

The deal is the second large infrastructure transaction completed by USS – the UK’s largest fund, at £49bn (€66.9bn) – in recent weeks.

In October, it acquired the UK’s largest service station operator Moto Hospitality for an undisclosed sum.