(Bloomberg) -- The billionaire Benettons’ highway and airport group Atlantia SpA is set to become the battleground for a bidding war in what could become the year’s biggest deal, as investors including Global Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. flock to the infrastructure sector in search of stable returns.

GIP and Brookfield said Thursday they made a non-binding bid for Atlantia and will partner with Spanish construction tycoon Florentino Perez’s Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA. Meanwhile, U.S. buyout giant Blackstone Group Inc. is discussing teaming up with the Benetton family to take the firm private, according to people familiar with the matter.

GIP and Brookfield said they made a proposal to Atlantia after meeting the Benettons twice in March. They also said they have an agreement with ACS, which could acquire a majority stake in Atlantia’s toll road concessions. The price of the bid was not revealed.

Shares in Atlantia rose as much as 12% in early trading on Thursday. The stock was up 11% at 9:28 a.m. in Milan, giving the company a market value of 17.3 billion euros ($18.9 billion). Atlantia’s euro bond due July 2027 is poised for its biggest fall since Feb. 7, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices. Shares in ACS rose as much as 2.6% in early trading in Madrid.

ACS previously considered an offer for Atlantia’s Autostrade unit, before the toll operator was eventually sold to an investor group led by Italian state-backed lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA. 

The Benettons and Perez, best known as the president of Spanish football club Real Madrid, already have ties through their joint ownership of Abertis Infraestructuras SA, the Spanish highway operator. 

Representatives for Atlantia and Blackstone declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Benetton’s Edizione Srl declined to comment on Perez’s interest, and wasn’t available to comment on Blackstone when contacted outside business hours.

Investors continue to pour money into infrastructure, drawn by the recurring returns these assets can generate. GIP is in talks to raise the world’s biggest pool of capital dedicated to the sector, Bloomberg News reported in February, while Blackstone last year reopened a flagship infrastructure fund to new money.

Atlantia has an enterprise value of more than 62 billion euros including debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, which would make it the target of the biggest deal of the year so far if completed with a premium, ahead of Microsoft Corp.’s purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. By that measure, it would also rank as one of the biggest infrastructure deals of all time.

Government Scrutiny

Any takeover would be difficult without the agreement of the Benettons, who own 33% of Atlantia, and could draw scrutiny from the Italian government. The industrialist clan strengthened its grip on Atlantia by boosting its stake after the 8 billion-euro sale of Autostrade last year. That incoming cash as well as huge appetite for infrastructure assets triggered the interest, the people said.

Atlantia controls Aeroporti di Roma SpA, which runs Rome’s airport, and it’s a shareholder in the Bologna airport. It also has hubs in Nice and Saint-Tropez in France. Atlantia is among the top shareholders in Getlink SE, the owner of Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel.

Atlantia has been refocusing on expansion and diversification plans, after coming under fire when 43 people died in a 2018 bridge collapse in Genoa on a roadway managed by Autostrade. Alessandro Benetton was appointed chairman of Edizione in January to help refocus the family’s business.

That month, the company agreed to buy Siemens AG’s road-traffic business in a 950 million-euro deal. It’s also targeting investments in the mobility sector as technology and digital services become more important across transportation networks.

Edizione views Atlantia as a long-term strategic asset, according to a person with knowledge of the company.

(Updates with shares, bonds in fourth paragraph.)

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