Monte Capital Management has acquired three quarters held by the Yosemite fund in Invepar, the parent company of the São Paulo International Airport, in Guarulhos. Together with FI-FGTS, the investment arm of the Workers’ Severance Fund, which owns a quarter of Yosemite, Monte will take a 25% stake in the infrastructure holding company, whose remaining capital is held by pension funds Petros, Previ and Funcef, with equal-sized stakes.
The arrival of a new partner in Invepar has been speculated since OAS left the group, in 2019, and the Yosemite fund was created with former creditors of the construction company. In the market, the assessment is that the infrastructure company was “leaderless” without OAS and that it would need a partner with a strategic view of the sector to return to growth.
The restructuring of Yosemite, led by Sinchro Partners, included the sale of 100% of the remaining economic rights of bondholders (former creditors of OAS) abroad, packaged in equity linked notes. Monte Equity Partners, another company of the group Monte, already held most of the bonds.
In addition, Monte injected capital into the fund for payment of creditors in Brazil. The amounts were not disclosed.
Under the new shareholding structure, Yosemite is expected to pick two names for Invepar’s board of directors. Julio Zogbi, a co-founder of the asset management company, said he sees good prospects for Guarulhos this year, “both in terms of growth and of attracting new investors.”
The airport is the group’s main business. With the sale of assets, Invepar has managed to restructure its debt after two years marked by several difficulties, including a request for cancellation of the contract of the Yellow Line in Rio de Janeiro’s subway system and the pandemic.
At the end of last year, the group transferred the MetrôRio concession to its creditors, Mubadala and Farallon, which reduced its debt. The company’s debt with Farallon and Mubadala, which exceeded R$2.5 billion, fell to less than R$800 million, according to its financial statements.
Invepar may also transfer the Yellow Line to the creditors to pay off the debt, but this will still depend on a favorable decision for the company in the legal battle with the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro.
With the deal, Monte, which already operates highways, will also enter the airport segment with Guarulhos. The holding company also has four other highways and a stake in Rio’s light rail system.
The airport sector is seen today as Invepar’s main chance to return to growth. Since the end of last year, Invepar had been looking for a partner for the Guarulhos Airport – the effort to sell its stake in Yosemite and selecting a new partner had been running independently. The group had hired Goldman Sachs to finds interested parties, which could be operators such as CCR, international groups or investment funds.
Invepar’s plan, with the arrival of a new partner, is to create a platform to invest in airports and possibly take part in auctions.
Monte controls the concessions Bahia Norte, in Bahia, and Rota dos Coqueiros and Rota do Atlântico, in Pernambuco, through Monte Rodovias. Sources say that the company has made a bid for Concessionária Litoral Norte (CLN), in Bahia, which is going through a competitive sales process. The highway, controlled by Invepar, has 183 kilometers and connects the city of Lauro de Freitas, Bahia, to the border with the state of Sergipe.
Monte declined to comment on the potential purchase of CLN, but said it is studying 15 potential acquisition targets at the moment, mostly in the Northeast region. The company, which gave up going public last year, tapped the debt market to fund itself and raised R$200 million through two bond issues.
Fábio Bonini, chief financial officer of Monte Rodovias, says that the company is getting ready to compete in the auction of state highways in Pernambuco. “We are ready to make a good proposal,” he told Valor.
For larger auctions, such as those of federal highways BR 232 and BR 101, the company will need a new capital injection. “When there is a new window, we can talk about an IPO again. At the moment, the debt market is heated.”
Source: Valor international