* CPPIB, Ontario Teachers' take 49 pct stake in venture
* Form partnership with Mexican billionaire Slim
(Adds comments from CPPIB executive)
By Matt Scuffham and Simon Gardner
TORONTO/MEXICO CITY, June 9 (Reuters) - Two of Canada's
largest pension funds have bought a stake in one of Mexico's
biggest toll road concessions from an infrastructure company
controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers'
Pension Plan have invested C$1.35 billion ($1.06 billion) for a
49 percent stake in the Arco Norte toll road, a 223-kilometre
(139-mile) road that connects the states of Mexico, Puebla,
Hidalgo and Queretaro and is a link to major trade corridors.
"Arco Norte represents our first infrastructure investment
in Mexico and enables us to invest in an established, modern
toll road of significant size," Cressida Hogg, CPPIB's global
infrastructure head, said in a statement on Thursday.
The deal will see the three groups create a strategic
partnership in which Slim's Ideal IDEALB1.MX will hold 51
percent, with CPPIB having a 29 percent stake and Ontario
Teachers' taking 20 percent. The partnership could be used for
further investments in Mexican infrastructure in the future.
"The focus of this deal is on Arco Norte. We're happy to be
in partnership with Ontario Teachers' and Ideal but we came
together to form this vehicle so that ourselves and Teachers'
could invest in Arco Norte," Hogg said in an interview.
"Clearly there are other opportunities in Mexico, but I
think we'll consolidate this investment that we've made and
continue to get to know our partners Ideal better. It may be
that other opportunities come up down the track, but at the
moment we're just very happy to have done this deal," she said.
Ideal's stock rose 7 percent to 22.8 pesos per share in late
morning trading.
($1 = 1.2756 Canadian dollars)
(Editing by W Simon, Nick Zieminski and Paul Simao)