Banca March prepares a co-investment proposal for its clients to acquire two landmark Lisbon bridges and the Douro Interior motorway in Portugal 23 May 2024 Category: Products The transaction involves the acquisition from NovoBanco of 40% of the Portuguese company Lineas-Concessões de Transportes by Banca March and the Spanish sustainable infrastructure fund manager, Serena Industrial Partners. Banca March will make this new co-investment proposal available to its customers through a private equity vehicle. Lineas-Concessões de Transportes owns 50.5% of Lusoponte, which operates the tolls on Lisbon's two main bridges (Vasco da Gama and 25 de Abril) and 80.8% of the Douro Interior concession, a 242-kilometre motorway located in north east Portugal (the IP2 and IC5 roads). Banca March is preparing to launch March Lusitana, a co-investment proposal that it will make available to its customers through a private equity vehicle. The transaction involves the acquisition of 40% of the Portuguese company Lineas-Concessões de Transportes by Banca March and Serena Industrial Partners. The remaining 60% of the company's share capital will continue to be owned by Monta Engil, Portugal's largest concession holder and construction company. Lineas-Concessões de Transportes owns 50.5% of Lusoponte (the remainder is owned by France's Vinci), which operates the tolls on Lisbon's two main bridges (Vasco da Gama and 25 de Abril) and 80.8% of the Douro Interior concession, a 242-kilometre motorway located in north east Portugal (the IP2 and IC5 roads). Investment in unique European infrastructure Banca March is to invite its customers to invest in key infrastructure landmarks, some of the largest of their kind in Europe, with a track record spanning over 20 years and strong growth potential thanks to expected concession extensions, rising tourism activity and the new real estate and infrastructure developments in the pipeline in Portugal. Banca March took legal and tax advice from the team at Cuatrecasas Portugal. Ignacio Montero, Director of the Co-Investment Unit at Banca March, said: "Banca March continues to seek opportunities to partner with its customers on co-investment projects that they would be unable to access individually. In the case of March Lusitana, our clients will participate in an investment in two Lisbon bridges and the Douro Interior motorway, all of which are unique pieces of European infrastructure. The partnership with Serena Industrial Partners is in line with Banca March's co-investment philosophy, under which we work on each project with a highly specialised, leading industry partner, in this case in the infrastructure segment." Co-Investments, eines der Aushängeschilder der Banca March Co-investment is a hallmark of Banca March and the utmost demonstration of the Group's commitment to its customers, inviting them to participate as partners in the same investment vehicles and projects in which the bank invests itself. In accordance with this philosophy of aligning interests, over the years the family-owned bank has co-invested with more than 9,000 customers through its institutional SICAVs (Torrenova, Lluc and Bellver) – liquid co-investment vehicles which, at the end of 2023, had a total volume under management of €1.9 billion. In the unlisted co-investment category, since 2008 the Banca March Group has committed more than €3.3 billion in illiquid assets with its more than 3,100 co-investors.