Brookfield gets full ownership of Chile highway

Brookfield Asset Management has written a €230 million cheque to Hochtief to acquire full ownership of Chile’s Vespucio Norte toll road concession.
 
The Toronto-based asset manager, which already owned 54.55 percent of the road, bought the remaining 45.45 percent of Vespucio Norte it didn’t already own, allowing Germany’s Hochtief to exit the project, which it helped build and operate since 2001. The deal is expected to close by year end.
 
Brookfield first bought into Vespucio Norte last year, when it purchased a 46.5 percent holding from Spanish developer ACS.
 
“This is a good success and in tune with the corporate strategy: We develop and optimise assets with our know-how and thus increase their value. Afterwards, we use the tied-up capital for new projects,” Hochtief chief executive Frank Stieler explained in a statement.
 
Vespucio Norte is one of the busiest roads in Santiago de Chile, the Chilean capital. In 2001, Hochtief and other partners won a 30-year build-operate-transfer contract from the Chilean authorities to develop a 29-kilometre section of the toll motorway.