Deals in roads sector gather pace as foreign investors buy up assets

MUMBAI: Investment, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the roads sector has picked up pace this year as foreign investors pump in millions of dollars to acquire operating roads and developers look to sell assets to pare debt.

So far this year, road deals worth around $1.8 billion have been announced. That compares with the entire last year’s deal activity of $2 billion, according to data from consulting firm EY and Mint analysis.

Last year’s deal activity was, however, skewed because of a single large deal, involving Macquarie’s acquisition of nine toll roads from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under its maiden Toll Operate and Transfer (TOT) model. Macquarie spent nearly $1.4 billion to acquire those roads.