Spanish infrastructure firm Abertis will focus on airport privatisations at home before considering assets coming on the block in debt-ridden economies like Portugal and Greece, its chief executive said.
Abertis operates tollways as well as airport and telecom assets and is seeking fresh investments to ensure growth in the face of a maturing asset portfolio.
"Our priority now is focused on Spanish airports… I know Greece more as a tourist than a businessman," Francisco Reynes said at the Reuters Global Real Estate and Infrastructure Summit.
Spain wants to partially privatise its airport authority AENA and assets such as its Madrid's Barajas airport and Barcelona's El Prat this year to cut national debt, steps that will also soon be taken by its Mediterranean neighbours.
But as Greece struggles to convince markets it is serious about cutting debt, Reynes said there was a plethora of foreign funds willing to join an industrial partner like Abertis for Spanish infrastructure investments, albeit at a price.
"It's like a game of musical chairs. Right now there are more players than chairs. We hope it's still that way once the music stops," Reynes said.
MUSCLE TO GROW
After winning a $1 bln concession in Puerto Rico with Goldman Sachs earlier this week, Abertis still has muscle to fund fresh investments and is prepared to issue bonds to extend debt maturities if the opportunity arises, Reynes said.
In one of his first interviews since taking the helm of Abertis last year, Reynes said the company will focus on emerging infrastructure markets like Brazil and the United States, where it is eyeing several forthcoming tenders.
"In terms of motorway concession developments the States is an emerging market. Americans aren't used to paying tolls," he said, while also highlighting "major opportunities" in Brazil.
Half of Abertis's sales, which topped 4 bln euros in 2010, are generated outside of Spain, and Reynes said the company's target is to reach well beyond that 50%.
But for the time being, the CEO said there are opportunities to extend tollway concessions in Spain in the short and medium term, emulating a scheme undertaken last year in France to extend concessions in exchange for fresh investments.
