Macquarie reaps $214m from toll road sale

Macquarie Group has completed the sale of a portion of its stake in Macquarie Atlas Roads (MQA) for A$282 million ($214 million; €192 million).

The Australian firm sold a total of 53 million shares at a price of A$5.32 per share to “a range of institutional investors via a bookbuild,” the company said in a filing at the Australian Securities Exchange. The transaction gave Macquarie’s divested stake an implied value of A$282 million. 

Following completion of the deal and the issue of 12.6 million shares as dividends to Macquarie, the firm will retain about 11 percent stake in MQA. 

“The wide allocation of securities resulting from the selldown will improve MQA’s liquidity and increase its weighting in the relative S&P/ASX indices. Macquarie remains a substantial securityholder, confirming its continued support of MQA,” said Peter Trent, MQA’s chief executive. 

The road operator also noted that Société des Autoroutes Rhône-Alpes (AREA), a subsidiary of Société des Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR), is a 49.9 percent owner of ADELAC, a 19.6km toll road concession in eastern France. “There is a prospect that AREA may be entitled to acquire further interests in ADELAC,” MQA said in the filing. MQA holds a 20.1 percent interest in APRR. 

In addition to France’s APRR, MQA also holds a 50 percent stake in Virginia’s Dulles Greenway in the US, a 70 percent stake in Warnow Tunnel in Germany and 100 percent of the M6 Toll in the UK.