Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Reaches agreement to sell Condor Ferries

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (“MIRA”), via Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 2 (“MEIF2”), has reached an agreement to sell its 100 per cent interest in Condor Ferries to the Columbia Threadneedle European Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (ESIF) and Brittany Ferries.

Condor Ferries is an operator of lifeline freight and passenger ferry services. Each year, Condor Ferries carries approximately 1 million passengers, 200,000 passenger vehicles, and over 900,000 freight lane metres between Guernsey, Jersey, the United Kingdom, and the Port of St. Malo in France.

Leigh Harrison, Head of MIRA EMEA, said: “Condor Ferries is an integral part of Channel Island life – underpinning the development of communities, economies, and tourism in the region. We are proud to have been its custodian over the past eleven years, supporting Condor Ferries as it has invested to modernise its fleet and enhance its customer offering. We are delighted to have found new owners to oversee the next chapter of its history.”

Paul Luxon, CEO of Condor Ferries, said: “I would like to put on record our thanks to Macquarie for the support and guidance they have provided over the past eleven years. We have appreciated their active and engaged approach, and we are pleased that they have found new shareholders who share the commitment they showed to maintaining and developing lifeline services for the Channel Islands.”

MEIF2 acquired Condor Ferries in 2008. Under MIRA’s management, the business has remained focused on the development of its offering to freight and passenger customers. MIRA also actively supported Condor Ferries as it invested to upgrade and modernise its fleet, with Condor Rapide entering service in 2010 followed by the Condor Liberation in 2015.

Macquarie has had a presence in the UK for 30 years, opening its London headquarters in 1989. Today, Macquarie is one of the largest investors in the UK, having invested and arranged more than £40 billion in infrastructure projects since 2005.

About Condor Ferries

Condor Ferries was founded in 1964 and initially operated a passenger service between France and the Channel Islands. In 1987, the first service linking the Channel Islands with the UK was launched and since then Condor Ferries has operated a year-round service connecting the UK through Poole, and Portsmouth, the Channel Islands through Guernsey and Jersey and to St Malo in France.

Condor Ferries operates the high-speed ferries, Condor Liberation and Condor Rapide. In 1999 Commodore Clipper, a conventional car, passenger and freight carrying vessel was introduced to the fleet to offer an all-weather, year round service. Each year, Condor Ferries carries just under one million passengers and 200,000 passenger vehicles.

Condor Ferries also operates Commodore Goodwill, as a freight only vessel. The Condor Ferries’ fleet carries 100,000 freight vehicles into the Channel Islands each year as well as exporting tonnes of local produce.

Condor Ferries is also an active member of the communities within which it operates and supports numerous organisations, sports and charities through sponsorship and travel. For further information, please visit www.condorferries.co.uk

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world.

With more than 2000 people including over 450 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage £380bn / €430bn of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.

Our priority is the investment success of our clients. We know investors want strong and repeatable risk-adjusted returns and we aim to deliver this through an active and consistent investment approach that is team-based, risk-aware and performance-driven. Our investment teams around the world work together to uncover investment insights. By sharing knowledge across asset classes and geographies we generate richer perspectives on global, regional and local investment landscapes. The ability to exchange and debate investment ideas in a collaborative environment enriches our teams' investment processes to ensure the best insights are applied to portfolios. More importantly it results in better informed decisions for our clients.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE:AMP), a leading US-based financial services provider. As part of Ameriprise, we are supported by a large and well-capitalised diversified financial services firm.

Source: Columbia Threadneedle Investments as at 30 September 2019, Ameriprise Financial Q3 2019 earnings release.

For further information, please visit www.columbiathreadneedle.com

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK.

In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born. The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes.

The story therefore begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC). From these humble beginnings however Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative. Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British. Around 210,000 freight units are carried each year.

For further information, please visit www.corporate.brittany-ferries.com