In June 2015, Cintra and Macquarie, seeking to make a return on their equity investment, announced their intent to sell all interest in the Skyway Concession Company, LLC. In November 2015, a consortium made up of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan agreed to acquire the lease on the Chicago Skyway from the Cintra/Macquarie consortium for $2.8 billion. Cintra and Macquarie earned approximately $490 million from the sale. The deal closed in February 2016. The Canadian Pension Consortium will operate and collect tolls on the Skyway for the remainder of the lease, until 2104.
The Canadian Pension Consortium viewed the Skyway as an attractive and stable long-term investment that would provide inflation-protected returns. It felt that the investment in a stable American infrastructure asset, which turned an $8 million profit in 2014, was worth the risk of fluctuating exchange rates. Each of the three pension funds contributed $512 million in equity for equal shares in the concession, while the remaining $1.26 billion is financed with toll-revenue backed debt.
The City of Chicago also benefitted from the buy-out of the concession, collecting almost $21 million in real property transfer taxes from the sale.