Spain’s ACS confirms Abertis wants Australian toll roads

afr.com:

The Spanish owner of CIMIC, Australia’s biggest construction group, has confirmed it wants to use its stake in Barcelona-headquartered toll road operator Abertis to expand into tolling motorways in Australia.

Juan Santamaria, the global chief executive of Group ACS – the listed Spanish company that owns CIMIC – told analysts after the group delivered its first-half results last week that there were “greenfield opportunities” for Abertis in Australia, and it was one of the main places identified for expansion.

Abertis, which has been trying to enter the Australian tollroad market for years, is a rival to Transurban in the coming auction for Melbourne’s EastLink toll road.

Spain’s ACS has committed to funding toll road operator Abertis so it can bid for more roads like EastLink. Craig Sillitoe

If a potential acquisition of EastLink by Transurban is stymied by the competition regulator, which is reviewing whether yet another toll road purchase by the country’s dominant operator would unfairly benefit Transurban in the future, Abertis will have a better chance of buying the Melbourne toll road.

As reported by The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column, ownership of EastLink could give ACS and Abertis a footing to build or buy more toll roads, creating more competition for Transurban.

CIMIC has helped build many of Australia’s toll roads, including WestConnex and the West Gate Tunnel (both of which are owned and operated by Transurban).

Abertis’s joint owners, ACS and the Rome-based Mundys Group (controlled by Italy’s Benetton family and part-owned by US investment group Blackstone) last week announced they would collaborate more closely to manage the Spanish toll road operator and appoint executives and directors