Slim Frontrunner in Fat Road Sale

Carlos Slim’s IDEAL is among the likeliest winners of a package of Mexican tollroads whose value is estimated at around MXP40bn ($2.9bn). “We’ve been working on this for a year, and it’s a very attractive asset to us,” Andres Alija, finance and operations manager at IDEAL tells LatinFinance. IDEAL is seen as the most well capitalized bidder at the moment, and among the hungriest for the package of tollroads, part of which surrounds the Tepic-Mazatlan route it already operates. Fonadin’s Paquete del Pacifico is a follow-up to the MXP44bn Farac I, won by ICA and Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners in 2007. IDEAL, which claims to be the second largest tollroad operator in Mexico after ICA, is looking to bolster its stature as a major concessionaire. Today it operates 5 concessions. IDEAL teamed up with Macquarie for the first auction and missed winning by a hair. It is waiting to hear confirmation from Macquarie regarding interest in participating as a joint sponsor on an upcoming bid. “Either way, we will definitely be bidding,” remarks Alija. Even competitor ICA notes IDEAL’s strength. “I’m sure they will have a very competitive offer,” says ICA CFO Alonso Quintana. He adds that ICA is “still looking at ways to make a bid.” ICA’s relative coolness with regards to upcoming participation is in part a reflection of the several projects the infrastructure shop already has going on, besides the Farac package it already has. Other bidders may include OHL, Global Via, and Iridium, a unit of Abertis. However, appetite for high-risk projects has dampened significantly, and bankers eyeing the deal wonder how many builders will turn up. “I am very convinced we will receive offers from many bidders,” says Federico Patino, head of Fonadin. “There will be price tension.”