Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, and Ontario’s two largest public provincial plans announced Friday that they had agreed to acquire the operator of the Chicago Skyway toll road for a combined $2.8 billion.
The board, which manages assets for the C$272.9 billion ($208.6 billion) Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa, along with the C$154.4 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the C$72 billion Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, both of Toronto, will each own a third of Skyway Concession Co.
The three pension funds paid an equal amount for the company, said Andrew Claerhout, senior vice president at Teachers’ Infrastructure Group, OTPP’s C$14 billion infrastructure investment unit.
Each will make an equity investment of about $512 million, with the rest of the financing coming from debt.
Skyway Concession was formed when Cintra Infraestructuras, a subsidiary of Ferrovial SA, and Australia’s Macquarie Group acquired the toll road from the city in 2005 for $1.83 billion, giving the consortium the right to managne and operate the road for 99 years.
Mr. Claerhout said CPPIB and the Ontario pension funds will operate the toll road for the remaining 88 years of the lease.
Skyway Concession notified the city in June it would put itself up for sale.
The 7.8-mile-long Skyway runs from south-central Chicago to the Indiana state line where it links with the Indiana Toll Road, which continues to be operated by Cintra and Macquarie.
The deal closing is pending regulatory approvals.
