December 1, 2008 12:57 PM

Good News: Citigroup Completed a $10 Billion Deal!

Posted by Zach Lowe

The Am Law Daily took a bit of a double take today upon learning that Citigroup purchased a Spanish highway operator for $10 billion from a company struggling with billions in debts.

After all, everything we've written about Citi lately has focused on the government's unprecedented rescue plan for the bank and its decision to lay off as many as 50,000 employees in the coming months.

Turns out, it's a special fund run by Citi (called Citi Infrastructure Partners) which purchased the highway operator Itinere from Sacyr Vallehermoso, a Spanish construction company desperate to raise money to pay off about $24 billion in debt.

Citi Infrastructure relied on in-house counsel and advice from CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo's team in Madrid (the firm also has offices in Seville and Marbella), according to a company spokesman.

Citi immediately struck separate deals to sell some Itinere assets (including highways in Portugal and Chile) to the Italian company Atlantia and the Spanish company Abertis, the largest highway operator in Spain. Those deals will net Citi Infrastructure about $1.3 billion, Bloomberg reports.

CMS did not immediately respond to a request to speak to a lawyer involved in the deal.

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