Mexico ICA Says MXN44.05 Billion Bid For Road Project Highest Offer

July 19, 2007

By Ken Parks, Dow Jones Newswires

MEXICO CITY - (Dow Jones)- Mexican engineering and construction firm Empresas ICA SAB (ICA) said Thursday that it and partner Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) submitted the highest bid, 44.05 billion pesos ($4.1 billion), for a federal highway concession.

In a filing with the Mexican stock exchange, ICA said it competed with five other companies for the 30-year concession, which involves the construction, operation and maintenance of 548 kilometers of highway in Jalisco and Aguascalientes states.

ICA said it expects the Communications and Transportation Ministry to release the final results of the tender on August 6.

The concession is the first of several toll-road concessions the government plans to tender to raise money for more road construction.

The government took over a number of toll roads from private-sector investors after the 1995 financial crisis, when interest rates soared and use of the roads fell well below projections.

ICA has been an active bidder for road projects, recently winning a 20-year, $ 300-million concession in San Luis Potosi state, and a 30-year concession on an 85-kilometer highway in east central Mexico in partnership with Spain's Fomento de Construccion y Contratas, or FCC.

The local shares of ICA were up 8.0% at MXN69.80 less than an hour from the market's close.

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