OPTrust has launched the sale of its 40% stake in Spanish transport group Globalvia, with several high-profile bidders mulling placing non-binding offers, said sources familiar with the situation.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has tapped Jefferies to advise it on a bid ahead of a deadline on 27 March, and is seen as one of the frontrunners for the auction, according to the sources.

Canada’s Brookfield is also mulling an offer, likely through its super-core infrastructure fund, which has already several other Spanish transport PPPs in its portfolio, the sources said.

The line-up of potential bidders that are examining the deal includes CPP Investments, Vauban Infrastructure Partners, and Blackrock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), added the sources.

Ardian is also seen as potentially interested in the process, although one of the sources suggested that the Paris-based infrastructure manager would only consider the deal if a majority stake becomes available.

OPTrust is currently the only active seller, having issued information memoranda in mid-February, and is working with RBC as its advisor.

The position of the other shareholders, PGGM with a 40% stake and USS with 20%, is still open as both have pre-emption rights and have not formally waived them, which has raised questions from some of the bidders.

One of the sources however said neither is expected to use these pre-emption rights, and that they might consider selling “if there is a decent price”.

Various sources have put the value of 100% of Globalvia’s equity at around EUR 3bn, with a 40% stake expected to fetch more than EUR 1bn.

The deal is complex given Globalvia’s sprawling portfolio, which includes investments in over 20 different types of assets including road, rail and bus.

The Madrid-headquartered company manages 1,200km of motorways in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and the US. It also owns light rail projects and a minority stake in iryo, Spain’s first private high-speed train operator.

It also owns a 49% stake in UK bus group Go-Ahead, with the other 51% stake held by Australian bus business Kinetic.

Kinetic’s shareholders, OPTrust and Foresight, put the company up for sale last year but stopped the process last November due to lack of suitable bids.

Sources said the lack of visibility about who will eventually co-control Go-Ahead makes evaluations more difficult for bidders in the Globalvia process.

Toronto-headquartered OPTrust started preparations to sell its stake in Globalvia last year, but the launch of the process was initially slowed down due to litigation linked to a battle to control Spanish road transport group Itinere. This was eventually settled last October when Globalvia sold its 40% in Itinere to co-shareholder APG.

In 2023, Globalvia recorded an operating profit of EUR 237m, compared with EUR 201m the year before. Revenues surpassed EUR 509m, up from EUR 489m in 2022.

Last year, Globalvia appointed Marieta del Rivero as new chairperson to replace longstanding chairman Juan Bejar, In January, Globalvia’s CEO Javier Perez Fortea also resigned, and Javier Martín Rivals, previously the company’s general manager for highways, has taken over on an interim basis while the selection of a new CEO is ongoing.

OPTrust, PGGM, USS, Globalvia, GIC, CPP Investments, GIP and Jefferies declined to comment. Ardian, Brookfield and Vauban did not respond to requests for comment.