Cofides grants OHL financial support in order to develop Autopista Urbana Norte in Mexico

It will participate in the capital stock of the concessionaire, until now fully owned by OHL Mexico, up to a limit of 12%.

The OHL Group and Compañía Española de Financiación del Desarrollo (COFIDES) have reached an agreement in order for the latter to provide financial support in the concession of Autopista Urbana Norte, which OHL Mexico is currently developing in Mexico City with 100% of its capital stock.

As a result of the agreement COFIDES, with resources from the FIEX state fund, has entered the Autopista Urbana Norte concessionaire with structured financing entailing a shareholding in the company’s capital stock. The transaction was signed today by the chairman of COFIDES, Salvador Marín Hernández, and the managing director of OHL Concesiones, Juan Osuna. The signature also counted on the presence of the State Secretary for Trade, Jaime García-Legaz, and the Chairman of the OHL Group, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir.

According to the chairman of COFIDES, Salvador Marín, “the Spanish state, through instruments such as FIEX, exclusively managed by COFIDES, supports companies whose know-how contributes to infrastructure modernization in third world countries, acting as the main driver of their economic and social development”. “OHL’s project in Mexico will have a positive effect on the local economy but also on the group’s international consolidation, including Spain. It also acts as a prominent banner to reflect an image of Spain that is beneficial to other companies or small and medium-size enterprises”, Marín pointed out.

COFIDES will contribute up to a maximum of 25 Million Euros, and this capital stock will be gradually paid up as funds are required to develop the concession, without its shareholding in Autopista Urbana Norte exceeding 12%.

OHL Mexico holds a purchase option over COFIDES’s shareholding as of the second year following its initial payment, and a purchase obligation five years later.

The Autopista Urbana Norte concession was awarded by the Government of Mexico City to OHL Mexico in June 2010, subject to a 30-year term since its operating date. It involves development of the 9 km. northern section of the second level in the peripheral ring road of Mexico City. Although it will mostly consist of a double-layer raised viaduct, with three lanes in each direction, it includes the execution of a 1.5 km. tunnel for environmental preservation of the Bosque de Chapultepec area.

Autopista Urbana Norte already has two sections currently operating, covering more than a 2.5 km. trunk road and five branches 1.6 km. long, which were opened to traffic in the last quarter of 2011. This motorway joins another city motorway, Viaducto Bicentenario, which OHL Concesiones also built and is currently managing in the State of Mexico.

COFIDES, a state company ascribed to the Ministry of Economy and Competition through the State Secretariat for Trade, has collaborated with OHL in five investment projects developed in Mexico, Peru and the Czech Republic, financing it with funds exceeding 100 Million Euros.