CapAsia JV sells stake in Thai toll road operator

According to a regulatory filing, the joint venture - known as FPM Infrastructure Holdings - will acquire a 29.45% holding in DMT from CapAsia's South East Asian Strategic Asset Fund (SEASAF) and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. First Pacific controls 75% of the joint venture so it is providing $100 million of the capital and will take a 26.2% economic interest in the target.

SEASAF and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi invested in DMT in 2007 through a 50-50 joint venture vehicle. Other major shareholders include Phanichewa Group and Thailand's Ministry of Finance, which own 37.1% and 25.1%, respectively.

Working under a 27-year concession ending in 2034, DMT operates a 21.9 kilometer six-lane elevated toll road stretching from Din Daeng in central Bangkok past Don Muang Airport and on to the National Monument in the north of the city.

Traffic has risen 10% since budget airlines began relocating to the airport in October 2012. In the first nine months of 2013 traffic averaged 77,000 vehicles per day. Further growth is expected on the back of general population and economic growth in Bangkok as well as the full re-opening of Don Muang Airport's second terminal in 2016.

SEASAF is CapAsia's first fund and reached a final close of $147 million in 2006. It targets private infrastructure in transportation, energy, telecom, water and wastewater, environmental services and private finance initiative-type services such as education and healthcare.

The private equity firm subsequently secured the management of the Islamic Infrastructure Fund - a joint initiative backed by the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank - and Babcock & Brown's Asia Infrastructure Fund.

It is currently raising CapAsia ASEAN Infrastructure III, which has a target of $350 million and a hard cap of $500 million. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi committed $25 million as the fund reached a first close of $100 million last December.

CapAsia was founded in 2006 as a joint venture between Malaysia's CIMB and South Africa's Standard Bank. Standard Bank sold its interest to CIMB in 2011 and last year The Rohatyn Group took a 60% interest in CapAsia.

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• Topics
• Infrastructure
• Infrastructure
• Exits
• Southeast Asia
• CapAsia
• Exit
• Southeast Asia
• Infrastructure
• Thailand