Galician companies Copasa and Espina are selling the road they built and operate in Uruguay for 213 million

Galician companies Copas y Espina hydraulic works reached an agreement on the sale Uruguay’s largest public-private highway concession for 213 million euros. The operation will close in the last quarter of the year with a consortium consisting of two investment funds: Bestinver and AberdeeNot.

In 2019, they were awarded, definitely, design, construction, operation and financing of the so-called Route 14great cross artery of Uruguay, of almost three hundred kilometers. This highway connects the center of the country with the west and connects four important cities — Mercedes, Trinidad, Durazno and Sarandí del Yi — on the route that communicates with Argentina and Brazil. It is an important transport network connected to the forestry and pulp industry and serves more than 300,000 inhabitants.

To the international competition that he announced at the time Ministry of Transport and Public Works Copasa competed in a temporary union of companies (UTE) with another Galician company, Espina Obra Hidráulicas, dividing the stake at 80 and 20% respectively.

Now sale This will allow Galician companies, according to sources from the operation, to develop new strategic investments. Therefore, the transaction is part of its plan to “rotate operating assets to maximize return on invested capital.”

Concession, named Road circle three, is the largest approval by the Uruguayan government through a public-private sector participation scheme. The initial construction was paid for with Copas y Espina’s own funds, external financing obtained in local currency and revenues generated in the first years of operation.

The concessionaire company generates income through availability payments paid by the ministry, as compensation for achieving and maintaining service quality. Last year, it had a turnover of 23 million euros, and expects an average annual income of 28 million euros.

The project rehabilitated 280 kilometers of the highway, widened the turning radii and removed all ramps and gradients of less than 0.10%. Ten bridges were widened and strengthened, and ten new ones were built, along with connections, connections and bypasses to urban areas.

One of the reasons why Copasa got the job was the highway rehabilitation solution. Therefore, Construction company Ourense managed to transform a tired pavement into a state-of-the-art road with a layer of high bearing capacity and multiple ecological, technical and economic advantages. This was achieved by recycling the cement paving material itself on site.

The construction was completed on time, and the first shares were put into circulation in 2020.

The financial closure of the project took place in June 2019, with the participation of three entities: Financial Foundation Fund for Infrastructure Debt in Uruguay CAF I, Corporación Andina de Fomento and Banco de Santander SA.

BBVA and Dentons Jiménez de Aréchaga acted as financial and legal advisors to the sellers, while Astris Finance, WSP, AON and Ferrere acted as financial, technical, insurance and legal advisors to the buyers.