Abertis Infraestructuras S A : Autopista del Sol buys up a total of €38 Mn in bonds

• The Chilean company has now finalised a successful repurchase of bonds maturing in 2018.
• The repurchase operation has set a precedent in the Chilean finance market in that it was approved by 100% of bond holders and by the company furnishing the financial guarantee.
• The operation will give the Group more room for manoeuvre to continue its growth project in Chile.
• Abertis continues to stride further into the Chilean market, in the wake of the Autopista Central purchase in January.

Autopista del Sol, an Abertis concession company in Chile, has now finalised a repurchase offer on a bond issue worth a total of 27,000 million Chilean pesos (almost 40 million euros). The operation entailed a full buyback of the issue, maturing in 2018.

This operation indicates the Group's efficient active management of the balance sheets of its business units, and boosts its capacity to home in on opportunities on the credit market to secure attractive conditions and continue to generate value for shareholders. Withdrawal of the bonds frees up resources and will give the Group more room for manoeuvre to make its investments without the encumbrances of the previous financial structure, and thus continue its growth project in Chile.

Focus on Chile

The operation also demonstrates the Abertis focus on Chile, where it intends to continue to invest in the months ahead. The Group is now busy arranging its assets in the country, with a view to simplifying its management processes and expanding at a faster pace.

In January the Group spent €950 Mn on the 50% it did not yet control of Autopista Central, the toll road with the largest volumes of traffic in Chile. The purchase reconfirmed Abertis as the country's largest concession operator by traffic volume.

In October the announcement was made of a new partner in the Chilean business, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority fund (ADIA), with a stake equivalent to 20% of the economic rights of the business in Chile. The operation gave better visibility to the value of the Abertis portfolio in Chile, and a financial boost to both organic and inorganic growth.

The Group is focused in the legal concretion of the agreements reached at the beginning of 2016 with the Chilean government; which imply investments to significantly improve the service level in Autopista Central and Autopista del Sol, and that will be compensated through the extension of the length of these concessions, accordingly to what is established by Law.

Chile is the Abertis Group's third largest market in terms of EBITDA, accounting for 11% of the total. The Chilean unit had revenues of €336 Mn and Ebitda of €254 Mn in the first nine months of 2016.

Abertis in Chile

Abertis is the largest toll road operator in Chile in terms of traffic, with six concessions totalling 771 kilometres under management:

• Rutas del Pacífico, which links Santiago to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar in the central area of the country (141 km)
• Autopista Los Andes, which links the city of Los Andes to the Ruta 5 Norte de Chile and the port of Valparaíso (92 km)
• Autopista del Sol (133 km), which connects Santiago de Chile to the port of San Antonio
• Elqui, which links Los Vilos-La Serena in northern Chile (229 km)
• Autopista Los Libertadores (116 km), which connects the country's capital to major cities to the north of the Santiago Metropolitan Region and the Los Libertadores border pass, the main entrance route to Argentina
• Autopista Central, part of the North-South axis of Santiago (61 km), the toll road with the largest traffic volume in Chile.