CVC Capital plots $16-billion buyout of Spanish infrastructure giant Abertis

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is plotting a €12 billion ($16 billion) takeover of Spanish infrastructure giant Abertis, The Sunday Times reported yesterday without citing sources.

London and Luxembourg-based CVC has initiated talks for funding the deal and plans to start negotiations with the airport and road operator Abertis in January 2011.

CVC, with approximately $46 billion in funds focused on management buyouts, had, in August 2010, acquired a 15.5 per cent stake in Albertis for €1.7 billion from Spanish construction company Actividades de Construccion y Servicios (ACS), which retained an indirect holding of 10.28 per cent.

A consortium of CVC, ACS and La Caixa - Abertis's largest shareholder with 28 per cent stake - had, in July 2010, failed in a debt-funded buyout after banks refused a €5 billion credit line.

Barcelona-based Abertis has interests in motorways, toll roads, parking garages, airport management, telecommunication infrastructure and logistics.

It has interests in 30 airports in nine European and Latin American countries, including Luton, Cardiff and Belfast International airports in the UK, Stockholm Skavsta, La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba airports in Bolivia and Orlando Sanford in the US.

It operates toll roads in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, as well terrestrial and satellite infrastructures. It also runs a network of radio and television signal broadcasting and distribution sites and offers audiovisual services for analogue and digital television and radio broadcasting.

Abertis, which has a market capitalisation of around €8.6 billion, posted net income of $618 million for 2009 on revenues of $3.9 billion.