A consortium backed by Swiss, Japanese and other investors has acquired the debt and equity linked to the N25 Waterford bypass for under €100m.

A London-based investment firm, Real Assets Investment Management, led the deal in partnership with IST3 Investment Foundation, which is backed by Swiss pension funds.

Daiwa Energy and Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Japan’s $200bn Daiwa Securities Group, also took part.

Sources said that the value of the deal was “between €50m and €100m, and closer to €100m”.

Depending on traffic flows, which continue to recover from low levels during the pandemic, investors might achieve a 10pc return, they added.

Tolls on the bypass are index-linked, and investors expect to hold the asset until the concession expires in 2036, it is understood.

The 23km project was originally built by Celtic Roads Group, and completed in 2009 under a public-private partnership scheme at a cost of around €600m.

It includes the landmark 465-metre-long, cable-stayed Thomas Francis Meagher Bridge spanning the River Suir.

The original partners in the scheme were construction group BAM, Altas Investments, which was part of the former NTR group, and ACS, a Spanish construction group.

The most recent accounts for the project show that after a restructuring in October 2021, five organisations held equity in the project: Merrill Lynch International – a division of Bank of America Merrill Lynch with 32.31pc – private equity giant CVC with a total of 52.08pc, UK private equity group Searchlight Capital with 3.34pc, state-owned Spanish bank ICO with 7.25pc, and a BAM subsidiary with 5pc.

As part of the restructuring, all unsustainable debt was converted to equity.

This left €83.5m of bank loans and €30m of shareholder loans, while net liabilities totalled €69.8m, according to the accounts.

There was also €217m of unrecognised tax losses, that could be offset against future profits.