Skip to main content

Infrastructure investors line up for Indiana toll road

According to a report by Reuters, some of the world's largest pension funds and infrastructure investors are forming consortia to bid for the operator of an Indiana toll road that filed for bankruptcy last month. Indiana agreed in 2006 to lease the 253 kilometre highway, billed as the Main Street of the Midwest, for 75 years in return for US$3.8 billion. It stretches across the northernmost part of Indiana from Ohio to Illinois, linking Chicago with the largest cities on the eastern seaboard. While f
October 16, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
According to a report by Reuters, some of the world's largest pension funds and infrastructure investors are forming consortia to bid for the operator of an Indiana toll road that filed for bankruptcy last month.

Indiana agreed in 2006 to lease the 253 kilometre highway, billed as the Main Street of the Midwest, for 75 years in return for US$3.8 billion. It stretches across the northernmost part of Indiana from Ohio to Illinois, linking Chicago with the largest cities on the eastern seaboard.

While former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels described it as the deal of a lifetime, opponents fought the agreement all the way to the state's Supreme Court, arguing the state was surrendering an important revenue stream.

However, almost as soon as the deal closed, the US slid into a deep recession and has been slow to recover from a financial crisis in 2008. Traffic volume on the toll road in 2013 was 10.7 per cent below the 2007 level, according to documents filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in Chicago.

Among the players cited in the report are 5428 Cintra, 4419 Ferrovial, 1813 Autostrade Meridionali and 6605 Abertis Infraestructuras. An auction is expected to kick off next month and a deal will probably value the road at $4 billion to $5 billion.

Related Content

  • Ohio Turnpike infrastructure project funds
    September 17, 2013
    The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) has approved the US$930 million funding needed for ten projects in northern Ohio, each within twenty miles of the turnpike. The 241 mile-long, limited-access toll highway serves as a primary corridor to Chicago and Pittsburgh.
  • Reauthorization 2012: the facts laid bare
    September 12, 2012
    A reauthorization bill for transportation came into law in July 2012, rubber stamping federal funding increases through the 2014 financial year, among other things. The new bill presents the good, the bad and the ugly of transportation infrastructure in the US, writes Pat Jones On June 29 this year, the US House of Representatives and Senate both approved the conference report on the ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’ or MAP-21. President Obama signed this legislation into law on July 6.
  • Brazil’s government to privatise roads with lowest tolls
    September 19, 2013
    Brazil’s government announced plans in 2012 to sell state asset to private investors through long term concession deals that would give the winning bidder the right to operate roads, rails and ports, many once built by the government, for around 30 years. The government is now looking to contain the risk involved with high tolls during the privatisation process for roads, and will initially auction off motorways with the lowest tolls.
  • ITS projects deliver return on investment
    December 3, 2012
    Light is being shed on where the real return on investment is today – growing, tangible, revenue-generating markets like ITS. There is a great deal of investment going on within the ITS space, and a great deal of external interest in investing in ITS,” says Scott Belcher, President and CEO of ITS America, which has been connecting investors with technology firms ripe for investment. Interested parties include the leading investment banking firm Raymond James. Its managing director, Gary Downing says: “ITS i