Abertis reaffirms its commitment to the Italian market with the purchase of an additional 8.53% of its subsidiary A4 Holding, which manages the A-4 Brescia-Padova and A-31 toll roads. 

Abertis reached an agreement to purchase a 8.37% stake from Società delle Autostrade Serenissima (where the two largest shareholders are Gruppo Mantovani with a 36.23% stake and by Gruppo Gavio with a 25.30% stake) and an additional 0.16% stake from Gruppo Mantovani directly.

Abertis will pay €47.5 million (US$50.5 million), which represents a 10% discount on the agreed price for the purchase of 51.4% last September. As we reported, Abertis closed the acquisition from Intesa, Astaldi and the Tabacchi family. The transaction was completed for a total of €594 million (US$669 million), to be paid in 2023.

After this acquisition, Abertis will control nearly 60% of A4 Holding, which currently manages 235 kilometres of toll roads in the region of Veneto, one of Italy's most prosperous areas, with one of the country's highest levels of GDP and per-capita income. It is a strategic geographical area, forming part of the corridor connecting Italy's industrial North to Europe's economic centre.

The 146-kilometre, 3-lane section of the A-4 toll road, known as "La Serenissima" connects Brescia with Padua. It is the country's third busiest toll road, with an Average Daily Traffic (ADT) of around 91,000 vehicles.

The 89-kilometre A-31 (named "Autostrada della Valdastico") has an ADT of more than 12,000 vehicles and connects Piovene Rocchette with Badia Polesine.

This transaction follows the announced last January for the purchase of a 10.52% of Sanef (France). Both agreements enable Abertis to reduce its operational risk profile and rebalance its global portfolio by increasing the weight of robust economies, like France and Italy, with stable concessions frameworks and a clear commitment to the public-private partnerships in the toll road sector.