January 26, 2021
Willkie represented STOA on the minority acquisition of Linha Uni, the project company entitled to carry out the São Paulo Metro Line 6 concession contract.
On January 20, STOA Infra & Energy, an investment fund specializing in infrastructure and energy projects across developing and emerging countries, and Acciona, a global group that develops and manages sustainable infrastructure solutions, announced that Willkie client STOA has acquired a 12.3% equity stake in Concessionária Linha Universidade S.A (Linha Uni), the project company to whom the São Paulo Metro Line 6 concession contract had been awarded and which was bought back by Acciona on October 6, 2020.
The São Paulo Metro Line 6 is the largest public-private infrastructure project under construction in Latin America, valued at €2.3 billion (R$15 billion).
Throughout the 5-year construction period, STOA is expected to invest approximately R$317 million into Linha Uni (€49 million). STOA is supporting the company and Acciona in the process of securing a non-recourse debt financing package from Brazilian and international banks in order to pursue the construction works of Line 6, which had been halted since 2016 and are now expected to be completed by 2025. After completion of the metro works, Linha Uni will oversee the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure for an additional 19-year period.
Acciona has the required technical expertise and vast experience in the development of urban mobility initiatives. Over the past few years, Acciona has built over 3,000 kilometers of railroad and metro track and 600 kilometers of tunnels. In Brazil, Acciona’s existing work includes the development of two batch for line 2 of the São Paulo metro network. In the rest of the Latin America region, the company has executed line 3 of the Santiago de Chile Metro and is close to completing the construction of line 1 of the Quito Metro.
STOA is a top-tier French investment player specialized in infrastructure and energy projects in developing and emerging countries. After two years of intense business development efforts across Latin America, São Paulo Metro Line 6 is STOA’s first public transportation project and STOA’s second investment in Brazil. It follows previous investments closed in countries including South Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Malawi, Pakistan and India, for a total commitment of €300 million over a three-year period.
Once completed, São Paulo Metro Line 6 will serve more than 600,000 passengers per day. Line 6 will include 15 metro stations, running along a total of 15 kilometers. It will connect the center of the capital to the city’s northwest corner, crossing through several neighborhoods where some of São Paulo’s main universities are located.
Willkie’s cross-border team was led from Paris by partner Michaël Armandou and included partner Jorge Kamine in Washington and, in Paris, partner Grégoire Finance and counsel Gil Kiener.
At STOA, Marie-Laure Mazaud (Deputy CEO), Antoine Durand, Mathieu Lebegue, Laurence Marle and Amine Masnaoui were instrumental in the success of this major investment in the region.
