Ferrovial clears final Cintra hurdle

Cintra's Board has approved the company's takeover by Ferrovial. This was the final hurdle in the way of Ferrovial's acquisition of the toll road operator, and the deal is expected to close in early December.

An all-share deal will see one new Ferrovial share exchanged for each four outstanding Cintra shares, valuing the company at € 1.31 billion.

Cintra is one of the world's larges private infrastructure concessionaires. It currently operates 23 roads totalling 2841 km in length. Most are in Europe, with sev3en in Spain, three in Portugal, two each Greece and Ireland, and one in Poland. However, it also operates five roads in both Chile and the US and one in Canada.

Ferrovial said the new merged company will focus on Greenfield transport infrastructure projects. It will have a total of 107000 employees spread across 49 countries and assets worth € 48,2 billion.

The all share deal will see Ferrovial's free float - the number of shares not held by institutions and major shareholders - rise from 41.7% to 55.4% of its equity. This means the del Pino family will no longer have a majority stake in the company. Ferrovial was founded by Rafael del Pino y Moreno, who died last year aged 88. His son, Rafael del Pino y Calvo Sotelo now heads the company as its chairman.