and the int. plan rolls on $70 in a week Macquarie bids for...

and the int. plan rolls on $70 in a week Macquarie bids for French toll road
From: AAP

February 23, 2006


INTERNATIONAL toll road operator and manager Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) today said it was confident a consortium it is involved in will acquire 100 per cent of French toll road Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone(APRR).
Earlier this week MIG (mig.ASX:Quote,News), in a consortium with Eiffage SA (Eiffage) and Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (MEIF) successfully acquired a 74.7 per cent interest in APRR.

MIG's equity commitment in the road network that makes up 28 per cent of France's total tollway sector was $404.6 million.

"We will be launching a document probably tomorrow with the French regulators to launch the takeover offer for the remaining 25.3 per cent," MIG chief executive Stephen Allen said today.

He said the company's original investment had not relied on a 100 per cent acquisition of the APRR.

"We think this will be a very good asset even if we don't acquire any more," Mr Allen said.

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"If we get above 95 per cent there are some benefits to it, we are hopeful that we will get above 95, but our investment case is not predicated on that."

The consortium's offer of 61 euros (99c) a share for the 74.7 per cent of APRR was recommended by the outgoing board of the toll road operator.

"We think this is a sensible offer and we are hopeful that the current shareholders will take it up, and we will see that play out over the next five or six weeks."

At 100 per cent, MIG's equity investment will be $600 million.

The original 74.7 per cent acquisition is expected to be finalised on Monday next week, after the consortium successfully bought out the French government and a small parcel owned by Eiffage.

If the consortium moves to 100 per cent, MIG will end up holding 28 per cent, Eiffage 50 per cent minus one share, and MEIF the rest.

At its current size, the arrangement will account for about 6 per cent of MIG's total asset base.

Mr Allen said described APRR as a "truly excellent" business that will "provide value" to security holders over time.

"If you took the APRR figures and combined them into our numbers (for the six months to December 31, 2005) our EBITDA from assets goes up almost 70 per cent and the EBITDA after the corporate expenses goes up about 96 per cent," he said.

"It is going to make a fundamental change to the EBITDA produced by our business today and the cashflow through our business."