CAF becomes first-time backer in Uruguay PPP

Uruguayan law firm Jiménez de Aréchaga, Viana & Brause advised the CAF I infrastructure fund, created and managed by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), in its sale of a 9-per cent stake in an $85.5 million loan granted to a toll road consortium, the first time the bank has acted as a lender in a public-private partnership (PPP) in the country.

The toll road consortium, Consorcio Rutas del Litoral, is the first PPP project in Uruguay, and is owned by Spain’s Sacyr and Uruguay’s Saceem.

 CAF granted the $85.5 million loan to Rutas del Litoral in 2017, a transaction in which Jiménez de Aréchaga, Viana & Brause also acted as counsel to CAF.

CAF I is a $350 million infrastructure fund created in October 2016 and managed by CAF to finance infrastructure projects in Uruguay, and is funded by various investors, including Uruguayan pension funds.



The fund was set up with the aim of acquiring senior debt of infrastructure projects executed by concessionary or contracting companies in PPPs in the energy, road, education, hospital, ports, and railway sectors.

The fund is managed by Administradora de Activos Uruguay, a Uruguayan company owned by CAF Asset Management Corp.

Consorcio Rutas del Litoral plans to carry out renovation and expansion works on the country’s highways 21 and 24, which serve the busy Nueva Palmira port in southwestern Uruguay, according to the law firm.