Novobanco sells 40% stake in Lineas

Portuguese bank Novobanco has sold a 40% stake in the Portuguese transport concession company Lineas Concessões de Transportes for “well over the book value” of €52.6 million.

The concession company in turn holds a 50.5% stake in Lusoponte and an 80.8% share of the Douro Interior concession. According to Journal Económico the sale was closed with the infrastructure fund Serena Industrial Partners with which it had signed a purchase and sale promissory contract at the end of last year, and with Spain’s Banco March.
Novobanco states in its annual financial report for 2023 that in December when the contract was signed for the sale of 40% of Lineas, this share was classified as an “investment in companies for discontinued operations”.
One year prior, in the 2022 balance, Novobanco held a share in Lineas of a total amount of €68.4 million, which after impairments of €7.4 million resulted in a net value of €61 million.
The remaining 60% of the capital will remain in the hands of construction giant Mota-Engil which will indirectly control 30.3% of Lusoponte and 48.5% of the motorway’s concessionaire Douro Interior. The concession periods are 2030 and 2037, respectively.
An official source at Banco March stated that had created a private equity vehicle to invest in Linea capital in partnership with the Serena fund March Lusitania (which has been created and registered), and a vehicle created by Banca March in which its clients will invest. Serena has its own vehicle.