lease

It takes three Reuters reporters to get the story completely wrong. They say in a piece running today that "the Abertis-Citigroup team let their Turnpike privatization offer lapse after a series of polls showed it was unpopular with voters."

American Trucking Associations (ATA) issued a statement Friday titled "ATA Applauds the Introduction of Anti-privatization Legislation" before the text of the bills (S884 and S885) were released, or any announcement made by the sponsors of the bills, suggesting ATA has an inside role. Sponsors of the bills according to the ATA are US Senators Jeff Bingaman (Dem NM) and Chuck Grassley (Repub IO).

A six month old public toll highway authority is just a few weeks away from issuing a request for expressions of interest for a toll concession for the design, finance, construction and operations of Jefferson Parkway a 20km (13 mile) tollroad northwest of Denver. The Jefferson Parkway is a missing link in the '470 beltway' around the Denver area. It will go from CO128 in Broomfield to CO93 at W58Av north of Golden (see map nearby.)

Abertis is better off not having had its $12.8b accepted for the Pennyslvania Turnpike concession, according to a leading European concessions analyst. In an email this morning Steven Fernandez, who follows concession stocks for Exane BNP Paribas says that the deal was generally perceived in European investment circles as too expensive for Abertis' good.

Exane BNP Paribus is a large European securities firm head-officed in Paris.

Abertis board of directors decided today to let their joint bid with Citi for the Pennyslvania Turnpike lease expire. They had twice previously extended the bid of $12.8 billion from the initial expiry date of June 20 in the hope of getting legislative approval for their deal with Governor Rendell. The deal which would have given the Abertis-Citi group a 75 year toll concession formally expired for lack of enabling legislation 5pm eastern time (09/30 17:00).

The Abertis-Citi current offer of $12.8 billion for a 75 year lease/concession of the Pennsylvania Turnpike expires next Tuesday Sept 30, and signs are it won't be extended. Last week a senior officer of the two companies was saying that without movement on enabling legislation this month, they were done.

Here's a commentary from Lowman S. Henry, head of the Lincoln Institute running on Pennsylvania radio on the tolling of I-80 and the future of the Turnpike. We agree much of his general drift, but think he's got a lot of things wrong, so our comments in parentheses make a debate.

Henry's headline: "Wrong Again: Leasing turnpike not only solution to PA's roads and bridge funding woes"

Following the Federal No to tolling I-80 on Thursday (2008-09-11) Governor Ed Rendell immediately called for enabling legislation to proceed with the agreed lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Abertis/Citi team which has a $12.8 billion offer in effect until Sept 30. Rendell says "It's the only plan." He says without it the state is back into financial crisis.

Abertis-Citi teamed to run the Pennsylvania Turnpike concession if Governor Rendell gets support from the legislature next month will be releasing a Turnpike reform manifesto next week. Speaking from a car phone on the Pennsylvania Turnpike which kept losing signal - and provoked exasperated curses for the Turnpike's "outdated" technology - the concessionaire's chief lobbyist Jim Courtovich told us the group is releasing a Turnpike reform manifesto.

The Wall Street Journal whose reporting of the toll business is generally sparse today (pA1 2008-08-26) frontpaged the proposed $12.8b toll concession of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Reporter Craig Karmin apparently got in to talk to the main champion state governor Ed Rendell who told him that leasing the Turnpike "is a decided underdog."

A Brisa, CCR, JPMorgan team titled A2 Transportation Partners (A2TP) topped the score in a rating of firms qualifications for the Alligator Alley toll concession in Florida. A2TP was followed by Cintra-led team (Everglades Parkway Partners) and Atlantia the big Italian motorway operator previously named Autostrade. Brisa is the leading toll motorway operator in Portugal and CCR in Brazil.

Pennsylvania Transportation Partners comprising Abertis (58.3%) and Citi (41.7%) have extended their offer to the state of Pennsylvania of $12.8 billion for a 75 year lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to September 30. The extension is designed to give the state legislature time to enact enabling legislation in their short Fall session mid-September.

Turnpike Commission CEO Joe Brimmeier has declined a challenge from the lease representative Jim Courtovich to debate the lease in public forums. He said in a hand delivered letter to Pennsylvania Transportation Partners that he wouldn't debate because the state legislature would decide the issue.

Turnpike Commission supporters in the Pennsylvania legislature made an odd move Wednesday - introducing a measure which if passed would have instructed the Governor and state ("Commonwealth") officials to execute the Concession and Lease Agreement announced May 19th. The move was easily defeated by 185 to 12.

See a text nearby.

Eight firms submitted qualifications in the first stage of a longterm lease of the 125km (78 mile) I-75 east-west tollroad from the Miami area to Naples Florida.

The eight are:

- OHL-Carlyle

- Abertis

- Atlantia (formerly Autostada) & ETC

- Brisa-CCR-JPMorgan

- Macquarie

Support for a lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike has surfaced with the announcement that two influential politicians are sponsoring enabling legislation - House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, a long serving Democrat representative from the northern part of Philadlephia, and Republican Appropriations Committee member Steve Cappelli, who represents the Williamsport area just north of I-80.

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell has accepted that the state legislature won't consider enabling legislation in time to accept the legally binding Abertis-Citi bid of $12.8b which expires June 20. He told reporters yesterday: "There isn't enough time (this month) to have the General Assembly review the Turnpike lease."

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.

US secretary of transportation Mary Peters has expressed enthusiasm for the $12.8b Abertis/Citi proposal for a longterm lease concession of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It appears on Fast Lane", the official Blog of the Secretary: see http://fastlane.dot.gov/, scroll down to May 20:

Peters writes, and we reproduce it in full:

"Pennsylvania Receives Largest Ever Transportation Private Investment Bid

The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch service is reporting that groups led by Abertis and Goldman Sachs are the only two remaining bidders for the 75 year lease concession on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The third group comprising Cintra and Macquarie - two of the most aggressive bidders in past concession procurements - are out.