LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - HICL Infrastructure Company announced on Thursday that it has completed the acquisition of an equity interest in the entities that comprise High Speed 1, in a transaction it had first announced on 14 July.
The FTSE 250 firm had said in its initial announcement that it was acquiring 35% of the company, as part of a consortium which had agreed to buy 100% of HS1 from Borealis Infrastructure and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board.

HS1 owns the concession on the High Speed 1 line, also known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which connects London, Kent and the Channel Tunnel to France.

Domestic rail services on the line are currently provided by Southeastern - part of fellow FTSE 250 firm Go-Ahead - while international services are operated by Eurostar.

HICL said it also successfully finalised co-investment in relation to HS1, explaining that in line with its previously-announced intention, a group of InfraRed-managed minority co-investors comprising Korean institutional investors and UK local authority pension funds, had invested approximately £120m.

The company's own share of the consideration for the HS1 acquisition amounted to £196m.

With co-investment now finalised, HICL said it has a 21.8% equity interest in HS1, and a net funding requirement of approximately £140m.

"InfraRed is delighted to have completed the HS1 acquisition on behalf of HICL and we welcome the co-investors into the project," said Harry Seekings, infrastructure director at InfraRed Capital Partners, which advises HICL.

"Through co-investment, we are able to develop key relationships with strategically aligned partners in order to facilitate access to larger opportunities for HICL.

"This approach allows HICL to manage its portfolio exposure and maintain prudent and responsible portfolio construction for its shareholders."

Seekings added that the HICL portfolio continued to be "well diversified".

"HICL's 10 largest investments, which represent around 45% of the portfolio by value, are spread across HICL's target market segments, geographies and sectors, with around 16% of portfolio value currently invested in demand-based assets with returns correlated to economic cycle."

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