In April 2003,
Acesa Infraestructures, a business founded in 1967 as
Autopistas, Concesionaria Española S.A., merged with
Aurea Concesiones de Infraestructuras, a business founded in 1971 as
Autopistas de Mare Nostrum (into which
Dragados had spun off its own toll roads), to form
Abertis. In December 2003, the
Abertis Group acquired
Retevision, a leading
Spanish radio and television distribution business; in June 2004, it acquired
Iberpistas, another
Spanish toll road operator. In December 2005, it acquired the French toll road operator
Sanef. An attempt initiated in April 2006, to acquire
Atlantia (formerly Autostrade), the leading Italian toll road operator, was aborted in January 2008, after opposition from the
Italian Government. However, the consortium withdrew the offer on September 30, 2008 as they felt the proposal would not win approval in the state legislature. In 2009, Abertis got control of AP-68 concessionaire Avasa (Spain), and of Elqui and Rutas del Pacífico (Chile). In 2011,
Metropistas, an Abertis subsidiary, won the concession for the PR-22 and PR-5 toll roads in
Puerto Rico. In 2012, Abertis acquired
Arteris, a Group managing nine toll road concessions in
Brazil and integrated additional three new toll roads in
Chile. The company also acquired 100% of
Autopista Central in
Santiago (Chile). In the same year, the firm created Emovis, a subsidiary for development and management of technology and information services to offer electronic toll solutions and intelligent mobility. In 2017, the Abertis Group entered into
Asia through the acquisition of two toll roads in
India. In October 2018, it was acquired by
Italian corporation
Atlantia, the Spanish firm
ACS Group and the German company
Hochtief. ==References==