Federated Hermes Infrastructure is pleased to announce the successful completion of the refinancing of Eix Diagonal, the largest concession in its Spanish shadow toll road portfolio, providing a return of capital to investors in its flagship Diversified Infrastructure Fund (“FHDIF”).
Federated Hermes Infrastructure provides institutional investors with cost-effective access to high-quality infrastructure equity investments across the UK and Europe. Since inception in 2011, the business has invested total capital of $5.5bn on behalf of UK pension funds and global institutions and returned over $1bn to investors since 2020.*
Iridium Hermes Roads is a portfolio of six shadow toll road concessions, providing essential transportation links across five regions in Spain. The largest of these concessions is Eix Diagonal, a 65 km road in the province of Barcelona, connecting the Costa Dorada area with central Catalonia. The concession started operations in December 2011 with a 30+ year agreement with [the government of Catalonia]. In December 2024, a construction programme to widen the road was completed, increasing peak time capacity, reducing congestion and allowing for incremental traffic to use the road safely.
Based on updated projections, a refinancing of Eix Diagonal debt has been completed, raising a total amount in excess of EUR288m via long-dated fully amortising bank facilities on attractive terms that have been used to repay the original senior and junior debt.
The transaction was led by Federated Hermes Infrastructure and co-shareholder Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras, S.A. (ACS Group) with BBVA acting as the financial advisor.
The completion of the Eix Diagonal road widening and subsequent refinancing follows a comprehensive review of capital market options in 2024 and we are grateful for the support from the new lending group (BBVA, CaixaBank, ICBC, Institut Català de Finances, Sabadell and Société Générale) as well as the hard work and collaboration from our co-shareholder, ACS Group, and financial advisor, BBVA. We believe this represents an excellent outcome for the investors in FHDIF, demonstrating our focus on value creation through optimising capital structures outcomes whilst also maintaining a prudent approach to leverage and returning capital where appropriate.
Tom Bolton, Managing Director, Federated Hermes Infrastructure
Share:
* As at September 30, 2024
PR001354
