Mirova, a wholly owned subsidiary of Natixis Asset Management dedicated to responsible investment, is pleased to announce that its EUR 700M fund dedicated to brownfield regulated infrastructures in Continental Europe, MCIF, has completed the purchase of a majority stake in French parking concessions on December 20, 2016. The transaction consists of the acquisition of four parking concessions with local municipalities in Bordeaux, Marseille, Asnières and Versailles, from a mid-size operating company, Urbis Park owned by Foncière des Régions (59.5%) and Predica (40.5%). These car parks are mature brownfield projects with proven track record and a strong market position, especially in Bordeaux city center.
The four assets, which will record an EBITDA of around EUR 8.7M in 2016, have been cash-pooled under a holding company Urbis Park Infrastructures, and refinanced through a EUR 102M project finance longterm debt (split into 2 tranches: one refinancing debt and one acquisition debt). The equity and senior debt closing occurred on the same day. The shareholding structure of Urbis Park Infrastructures is divided as follows: MCIF (85%), Transdev Stationnement (10%), Caisse d’Epargne CEPAC (3%) and Caisse d’Epargne Aquitaine Poitou-Charentes (2%).
The senior debt was arranged by the leading bank of the Mediterranean Arc and overseas, Caisse d’Epargne CEPAC, and provided by the latter, Caisse d’Epargne Aquitaine Poitou-Charentes and three other financial institutions.
Alongside this transaction, Transdev Group, subsidiary of Caisse des Dépots and a world leader in mobility, closed the acquisition of Urbis Park Services, the operating company of Urbis Park Group, through its subsidiary Transdev Stationnement. Urbis Park Services will keep serving as operator of the four parking concessions. Also, Mirova and Transdev Stationnement signed a long-term business partnership to team up on further projects.
Mounir Corm, Mirova’s Deputy Head of General Infrastructure and Fund Principal, commented: “Urbis Park Infrastructures represents an excellent investment opportunity for our investors. The underlying assets offer robust long-term revenues thanks to the strength of economic and demographic factors of the areas they operate in. There is also potential for tremendous benefits for the local municipalities and communities in urban mobility developments, and we are excited to help make that happen. Also, we look forward to developing our partnership with Transdev Stationnement on further transactions”.
“We are very pleased to be able to make an interesting investment in these strategic assets with a long operating history and good prospects for long-term income,” said Romain Uthurriague, Senior Investment Manager at Mirova and in charge of this transaction. “Thanks to the financial engineering and legal structuring we put into that transaction we have developed an AssetCo-OpCo model [1] that fits perfectly with our core infrastructure strategy.”
Mirova was advised by Bird & Bird (Legal), KPMG (financial and due diligence), Fidal (Tax), Gras Savoye (Insurance), and Currie & Brown (technical) and Sareco (traffic). Herbert Smith Freehills acted as legal adviser for the arranger and lenders.
