Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) has made an investment on behalf of its clients into a bond issued in connection with the acquisition of receivables derived from co-financing payments owed to Concesionaria Vial Sierra Norte S.A. by the State of Peru.
“We are very excited to achieve another milestone in building the AllianzGI franchise Infrastructure Debt in Latin America,” said Jorge Camina, director of infrastructure debt at AllianzGI. “This is our fourth transaction in the region, having invested over $850 million in about six months. We continue to see a strong value proposition in matching our clients with project Sponsors developing infrastructure in the region. Our cooperation with Convial and Santander is another probe of the success and ability of institutional investors to structure tailored solutions that fully address projects’ needs.”
Convial was awarded in 2014 the 25-year concession to rehabilitate, operate and maintain 547 miles of Longitudinal de la Sierra (Section 2) toll road in the regions of Cajamarca and La Libertad, in Peru. As part of the concession, Convial was awarded co-financing payments from the Estate of Peru. Convial is majority owned by Sacyr, in partnership with Constructora Malaga.
“We are proud of this transaction,”said Santiago Eguia, head of structured finance at Sacyr Concesiones. “Working with sophisticated partners like AllianzGI, Santander and the investor group was critical to structure this solution. This is a one of its kind innovative financing that put together a club deal of international private placement investors under a 4(a)2 bond format to finance the acquisition of sovereign co-financing payments. It also includes a deferred funding feature for a portion of the discounted payment rights.”
AllianzGI clients were anchor investors in the approximately $330 million fully amortizing 16 year bond that monetizes certain co-financing payments owed by the State of Peru under the terms of the concession. Banco Santander acted as sole placement agent and as financial advisor to Convial. Sacyr is a leading global infrastructure group with presence in over 20 countries.
This investment supports AllianzGI Infrastructure Debt’s continued expansion into Latin America, which was initiated in 2018. This transaction is the fourth investment under such expanded strategy and follows the recent infrastructure investments in the Fermaca El Encino – La Laguna gas pipeline in Mexico, the El Naranjal & Litoral investment in a solar PV operating portfolio in Uruguay and the Tres Hermanas and Marcona wind portfolio in Peru.
AllianzGI Infrastructure Debt expanded its strategy to Latin America in 2018. The AllianzGI infrastructure debt platform has now made $4.6 billion of investment commitments to infrastructure assets in the Americas over a period of less than four years, with more expected to follow.
