ITINERA and HALMAR bolsters team ahead of P3 Pursuits in 2020
Itinera Infrastructure & Concessions is off to a good start to 2020! After launching in May 2018, Itinera has doubled its team to pursue several of multi-billion-dollar transportation infrastructure P3s across the US market, including Maryland Capital Beltway – one of the nation’s largest road programs. Itinera is owned by ASTM, one of the largest and most mature P3 developers in the world. ASTM currently has four concessions companies. The Gavio Group (60%) and Ardian Fund (40%) have controlling interest of ASTM through holding company Nuova Argo Finanzaria.
Ryan Prince has joined Itinera as Senior Investment Director focusing on arranging project financing for large-scale transportation P3 projects. Mr. Prince brings over 15 years of infrastructure investment and corporate finance experience in the transport and vertical infrastructure as well as renewable and conventional energy sectors. Ryan joins from John Laing Investments where he was Senior Vice President of Primary Investments most recently involved in the success investment in the I-66 project in Virginia where he led an independent T&R review as well as underwriting and valuation processes, while leading bid pursuits for the Alabama I-10 Mobile River Bridge, Colorado’s Jefferson Parkway, Maryland Purple Line P3; and a few ‘first-of-their-kind’ type P3s, including the New York State Thruway’s Rest Areas redevelopment and the MBTA Automated Fare Collection in Boston, Massachusetts. Previously, he has held positions at Macquarie Investment Management, ING Capital, and Louis Berger; among others, and brings expansive project finance experience, executing complex project finance transactions across the debt capital and bank loan markets, as well as, structuring project and preferred equity as well as subordinated debt investments in North and South American greenfield projects.
Albert Racciatti has joined Itinera as Chief Economist focusing on infrastructure feasibility assessment, demand forecasting, and transaction due diligence. He brings over 20 years’ experience, most recently as Vice President at Louis Berger, where he led the firm’s infrastructure economics consulting practice. Al has analyzed many of the priced managed lanes and toll road assets brought to market in North America. He has also led recent studies for intercity rail, commuter transit, airport access, service plazas, and parking assets. Al has conducted training on economic analysis techniques for the Build America Bureau, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, US Army Corps of Engineers, and many state departments of transportation. With involvement in new project development, restructuring, and asset sales, Al has an in-depth understanding of financial analysis and project finance structures, including credit rating agency criteria, and capital market trends and standards.
Arben Shasho has joined Itinera as Vice President, Traffic & Revenue to lead the feasibility and investment grade studies for new managed lanes and toll road projects, and support optimization and performance improvements of existing assets. Mr. Shasho has 25 years of experience initially in academia and then as a consultant. Most recently as the Director of Traffic Services for Transurban, he led the development of all the fit-for-purpose Strategic Traffic Models for traffic & revenue investment studies and played critical roles in support of multibillion dollar projects such as the I-95 Express Lanes, I-395 Express Lanes, I-95 Fredericksburg Express Lanes extension, I-66 Express Lanes bid and awarded in Virginia, and Queensland Motorways (QML) assets in Brisbane, and WestConnex in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Shasho was one of the developers of the original Dynamic Tolling Algorithm currently used for 495 and 95 Express Lanes pricing.
Itinera will pursue all of its North American transportation projects with its civil construction partner Halmar International.
Last September, David Sikorski joined Halmar International as Vice President of Special Projects, focused on Design-Build and P3s to augment the civil construction company’s ability to go after such projects. He brings over 35 years’ experience in engineering, development and investment in large scale infrastructure projects. As part of one of the most recent transformational P3s in the US market, he was Program Manager for the U$740M new-fare collection system for the entire Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Previously, he was Project Director and CEO of the U$1B Ohio River Bridges East End Crossing P3, leading role in the C$1.2B Regina Bypass P3 in Canada, as well as part of pursuit teams chasing the U$2.6B Purple Line LRT in Maryland, as well as lender’s technical advisory work for numerous P3s - including the Indiana Toll Road and the LBJ IH-635 managed lanes project in Texas.
About Itinera & Halmar
Itinera Infrastructure and Concessions (“Itinera”) is the North American concession-arm of ASTM, the second largest toll road operator in the world by road miles. ASTM has 24 concessions, 2,858 road miles, and $25B in assets under management across Italy, Brazil, and the UK. In 2017, Gavio Group acquired 50% of Halmar International and launched Itinera in 2019 to pursue large complex transportation P3s across the US and Canada. Halmar is a leading civil construction company based in New York and expanding geographically with new offices in the Mid-Atlantic and California. Itinera SpA, a part of the Gavio Group, is an international civil construction company with a $5B backlog and €8B in projects across 21 countries. Both companies are based in New York.