Cleary Gottlieb represented Highstar Capital in the sale of its 50 percent stake in Aerostar Airport Holdings, operator of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Aeropuerto de Cancún, S.A. de C.V. (ASUR), also represented by a team of Cleary lawyers, purchased a 10 percent stake in Aerostar, increasing its ownership to 60 percent. AviAlliance Canada Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), purchased Highstar’s remaining 40 percent stake.
Aerostar was created as a joint venture between ASUR and Highstar Capital in 2012. In 2013, Aerostar was awarded a 40-year lease to operate the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan (LMM Airport). The LMM Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the Caribbean, welcoming approximately 9 million passengers in 2016. The LMM Airport is the first, and is currently the only, major airport in the United States to have successfully completed a public-private partnership under the FAA Pilot Program.
ASUR is a Mexican airport operator with concessions to operate, maintain and develop nine airports in the southeast of Mexico, as well as a 60 percent joint venture partner in Aerostar. Highstar Capital, which was acquired by Oaktree Capital Management in 2014 and now comprises Oaktree’s infrastructure investing strategy, is a New York-based group with global investments in the energy, environmental services and transportation sectors. PSP is one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.