sale

Sale of the South Bay Expressway tollroad (CA125) to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) went to financial close at the multi-city/county agency offices December 21 and SANDAG officially became the owner and operator of the facility today (Dec 22). Purchase price was $341.5m and SANDAG bought from the financial institutions left with its residual value after a bankruptcy last year.

Republican candidate for governor of West Virginia Bill Maloney says the state needs to look at selling the Turnpike or putting it out to the private sector on a longterm lease. "We need to think differently than we have before. I don't have all the answers, but there are a lot of people with answers," he told the Beckley Register-Herald recently.

"We need to look at other states and see what they have done," Maloney said.

Spain's ACS/Dragados has agreed to sell two of its major Chilean toll holdings to the Canadian Brookfield Asset Management of Toronto. Brookfield will get a majority interest in the Autopista Vespucio Norte tollroad and the Tunel San Cristobal in Santiago Chile for $340m.

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is buying the South Bay Expressway from the post-bankruptcy South Bay Expressway LLC for $345m, about two-thirds what it cost to build.

The SANDAG board agreed in principle to the purchase Friday but will discuss financing of the purchase at their next meeting scheduled for August 26. There have to be public hearings and a final decision by about November.

Australian-based Intoll reported a decent result for fiscal 2010 (the year to 2010-06-30) - an increase of 14.8% to A$74m in earnings, a 13.1% increase in EBITDA to A$190m, an 8.2% increase in operating revenues to A$236m, based on a 3.6% increase in traffic. Profit after corporate taxes was A$1.55b.

Portfolio valuation was reduced during the year from A$3.64b to A$3.43b. (An A$ is currently US$0.89)

Transurban is buying the Lane Cove Tunnel concession on the eastern end of their M2 Hills Motorway in the northern suburbs of Sydney. The company is paying A$630.5m (US$570m) for the twin tube tunnel 3.6km (2.25mi) toll facility that carries 63.5k vehicles/day. It has been in bankruptcy, operated by receivers for the lenders since January.

Several readers have forwarded us a Bloomberg News report with the all-capitalized headline "Illinois, Indiana Toll Roads May Join Macquarie Sales" suggesting we should follow up on this. Trouble is there's nothing there, no news, nothing new.

The ownership by the toll agency is usually spelled out in the agreement the motorist signs when opening a transponder account.