Interest to lease turnpike is broad

Gov. Rendell has revived the idea. Thirty-four firms from the U.S. and abroad have offered qualifications.

Oct. 2, 2007

By Paul Nussbaum, Inquirer Staff Writer

The latest suitors of the Pennsylvania Turnpike came calling in Harrisburg yesterday, with a distinctly international accent.

Thirty-four financial, engineering and management companies submitted 14 proposals to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, offering their qualifications for operating the turnpike.

Gov. Rendell set yesterday as a deadline for companies to submit their "expressions of qualifications" to lease and operate the road, as he looks for billions of dollars to pay for highway and bridge projects and mass transit.

Rendell initially proposed leasing the turnpike last year, but the legislature balked at the idea. Instead, lawmakers passed - and Rendell signed - a law to place tolls on Interstate 80, increase tolls on the turnpike, and use 4.4 percent of state sales tax proceeds to raise about $965 million more per year for transportation projects.

But that law, Act 44, has run into heavy criticism from northern Pennsylvania politicians and businesses, who say tolls on I-80 could hurt businesses and residents along the I-80 corridor. Two area congressmen are seeking to pass federal legislation to prevent the tolls on I-80, and some state legislators from the region are talking about trying to repeal Act 44.

So Rendell returned to the turnpike as a possible source of money. If the state leased the turnpike to a private operator, it could collect $20 billion or more, financial advisers hired by the administration have estimated.

"Over the coming days, we will evaluate the responses to determine the entities that are qualified to bid on a potential lease of the turnpike," Rendell said in a statement. "With this level of interest, we owe it to taxpayers to continue exploring the opportunities that might be available through this process."

Rendell's office yesterday released the names of the 34 companies that have submitted expressions of interest, but did not specify which firms have teamed up.

The companies include the biggest names in toll-road management, including Macquarie, an Australian firm, and Cintra, a Spanish company. Those two firms have jointly leased the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road, the first American toll roads to be leased to private operators.

Other suitors include investment firms and toll-road managers from Canada, India, Australia and Switzerland, as well as New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

 

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The Suitors

The list released from Gov. Rendell's office of companies submitting expressions of interest in operating the Pennsylvania Turnpike:

• Abertis Infraestructuras, Barcelona, Spain.

• ACS Infrastructure Development Group, Bangalore, India

• AIG Financial Products Corp., Wilton, Conn.

• Babcock & Brown, Sydney, Australia.

• Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc., Toronto, Canada.

• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto.

• Cintra, Madrid.

• Citi Infrastructure Investors, New York.

• Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Sydney.

• Global Via Infrastructuras S.A., Madrid.

• Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York.

• HH Capital Advisors, North Hampton, N.H.

• Industry Funds Management, Wollongong, Australia.

• Isolux Corsán, Madrid.

• JE Jacobs, Pasadena, Calif.

• John Hancock Financial Services, Boston.

• JP Morgan Investment Management Inc., New York.

• Macquarie Infrastructure Partners Inc., Sydney.

• Merrill Lynch, New York.

• North American Strategic Infrastructure Partners L.L.C., headquarters unavailable.

• OHL Concesiones SL, Madrid.

• OHL Infrastructure Inc., Madrid.

• OHL SA, Madrid.

• Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Toronto.

• PA Turnpike Employees and Partners L.L.C., Harrisburg.

• POPT L.L.C., headquarters unavailable.

• RREEF (a Deutsche Bank subsidiary), New York.

• Santander Capital Riesgo Global, Madrid.

• The Herrick Company Inc., Cedar Knolls, N.J.

• Transfield Services, North Sydney, Australia.

• Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund, North Sydney.

• Transurban USA Inc., U.S. subsidiary of Sydney-based firm.

• UBS Investment Bank Infrastructure Fund, Zurich, Switzerland.

• VMS Inc., Richmond, Va.