Debevoise & Plimpton and Mayer Brown advising

Hardly a month passes by without the news that a top Iberian infrastructure company has won yet another major road construction, reconstruction or operator concession deal somewhere in the world. Abertis, Acciona, ACS-Dragados, Brisa, FCC, Ferrovial (Cintra), OHL and Sacyr (Itínere and Somague) are to be seen in action wherever major contracts are up for tender.

The latest success was once again in the United States, where Barcelona-based Abertis, together with La Caixa’s investment arm Criteria Caixa and Citi Infrastructure Investors, paid €8.2bn to secure the largest privatisation ever in the US for an infrastructure asset – the 70-year old Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Turnpike runs 800km from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and Scranton and generates annual revenues of over €385m. New- York’s Debevoise & Plimpton advised the Abertis consortium while the State of Pennsylvania mandated Chicago-based Mayer Brown and Philadelphia firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll.

Mayer Brown, which formed an alliance with Madrid-based Ramón y Cajal last July, had worked on the two previous record US privatisations. Both were won by Cintra, working alongside Australian investment giant Macquarie and used White & Case as legal advisers. A 75-year, €2.45bn lease on the Indiana Toll Road was acquired in 2006, and the €1.17bn Chicago Skyway concession was secured in 2004.

Iberian companies are well placed to win yet more contracts in North America, suggest experts. In Canada, Acciona and ACS-Dragados are in a consortium bidding for the design, build, financing, operating and maintenance (DBFOM) of Quebec’s projected 42km, €1bn A-30 toll road.

Back in the US, Texas has issued a request for detailed proposals for the 36km, €1.3bn North Tarrant Express, Trans- Texas Corridor TTC-35 toll road rebuild. Portugal’s Brisa is one bidding consortium (advised by Allen & Overy), Itínere (with Jones Day) is in another, Cintra (with Bracewell & Giuliani) in a third and OHL in a fourth.

This will be followed by a build-finance-operate scheme for a 600-mile toll road, the TTC-69, linking North Texas with Mexico. Cintra is in one bidding team and ACS-Dragados in another.

In Florida, FCC has already won the €100m contract to upgrade the 24km of the I-95 highway that runs through Miami – its first construction project success in the US. Two of the four short-listed teams to win the 35-year, €1bn lease I-595 toll road scheme are Spanish – ACSDragados is in one and OHL in another. This will be followed by the 74km, €1.5bn Jacksonville First Coast Outer Beltway DBFOM toll project that has four teams bidding, all of which include Iberian companies: ACSDragados, OHL, FCC, Cintra, Itínere and Somague.