Consortium Claims Pole Position for New Farac

A consortium of Portugal’s Mota-Engil, Brazil’s CCR and Australia’s Macquarie claims to have submitted the best bid for the latest in the family of Mexican toll-road packages known as Farac. The 30-year concession for the Noroeste package of roads and bridges in the states of Nuevo Leon and Taumalipas is expected to require an investment of MXP8.39bn. Now that the government has apparently opened bids, it will examine them and is expected to formally announce a winner mid-April. State infrastructure bank Banobras will provide financing of MXP4.57bn, Mota-Engil says. Officials from the 3 firms did not respond to requests for comment on additional financing options. Mota-Engil, through its Ascendi concession unit, Macquarie and CCR would each hold one-third of the concession. Macquarie is participating through its Macquarie Mexico Infrastructure Fund I, launched last year with investors including pension funds participating through the CCD market. The package includes both operational assets and new construction, which Mota-Engil estimates to be completed in 2013. As of late Wednesday, Mexico’s government had not confirmed Mota-Engil’s claim to have submitted the best bid.