abertis

Jordi Graells as first VP of IBTTA will be president of the Washington DC based international toll group in 2012. He has recently moved from Barcelona Spain where his company Abertis Infrastructuras SA is headquartered to live in the DC area.

Steve Fernandez, 34, formerly a concessions analyst at the European investment research firm Exane BNP Parabis in London has been appointed director of investor relations at Abertis, one of Europe's largest tollroad operators. He's moving to Abertis head office in Barcelona Spain.

Jordi Graells managing director of Abertis the majority equity holder in the Abertis-Cit partnership selected by the Governor of Pennsylvania for a longterm lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike said today they will be moving very cautiously on all-electronic tolling. At a minimum he said it would be ten years.

All-electronic tolling (AET), also called 'cashless' would eliminate all toll collector jobs.

An Abertis presentation to investors says the estimated shareholder return (IRR, Internal Rate of Return) on the Pennsylvania Turnpike concession is in "the low double digits." 11 or 12 percent? They say the concession "meets the company's stringent investment criteria."

An official told us the company and its partners had gone "right to the edge" in their best and final offer. They were very keen to be selected.