Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Puts Rio’s Metro Up for Sale

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Rio de Janeiro · Markets

Key Facts

—The move. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital has hired Santander to find buyers for its controlling stake in HMobi, which runs Rio de Janeiro’s metro.

—The stake. Mubadala owns 51.5 percent of HMobi, holding company for the MetroRio and MetroBarra concessions, which run to 2048.

—The stage. The search for buyers is early, and people close to it expect the process to run for several months.

—The numbers. In the first quarter of 2026 the operator carried 41.6 million paying riders and earned a net profit of R$19.1 million ($3.7 million).

—The owners. Brazilian pension funds Previ, Funcef and Petros hold the other 48.5 percent.

—The backstory. Mubadala did not buy the asset outright but inherited it in 2021 through a debt restructuring at the former owner, Invepar.

An asset Mubadala never set out to own is now on the block, in what could become one of the larger deals in Brazilian transport infrastructure.

Mubadala Capital, the asset-management arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, has hired Santander to find buyers for its controlling stake in the company that runs Rio de Janeiro’s subway, according to the Brazilian business outlet NeoFeed. The fund is sounding out interest rather than running a formal auction, and the process is still at an early stage.

At stake is a 51.5 percent holding in HMobi, the company that controls the MetroRio and MetroBarra concessions. Those contracts run until 2048, giving any buyer more than two decades of operating rights over the second-largest subway system in Brazil after São Paulo’s.

People familiar with the matter expect the search to stretch over several months. The remaining 48.5 percent of HMobi sits with three large Brazilian pension funds, Previ, Funcef and Petros.

Why Mubadala is selling now

The sale fits a wider pattern of the fund tidying up assets it did not originally seek. Mubadala did not chase the Rio metro so much as inherit it, taking control in 2021 through a restructuring of debt owed by the previous owner, the infrastructure group Invepar.

That deal let Invepar clear about R$1.8 billion ($348 million) of debt with its creditors, Mubadala among them, in exchange for the metro shares. The company was then renamed HMobi, as the fund’s own reporting at the time of the 2021 takeover set out.

For a foreign reader, the logic is simple enough. Sovereign funds like to rotate capital, and an operating subway in a single foreign city is the kind of hands-on asset many prefer to pass to a specialist owner once it is back on a stable footing.

What a buyer would get

The underlying business looks healthier than it did during the pandemic, when ridership collapsed. In the first quarter of 2026 the operator carried 41.6 million paying passengers and posted net revenue of R$333 million ($64 million), with a net profit of R$19.1 million ($3.7 million), according to the figures cited by NeoFeed.

Its margins are solid for a transport concession, with operating earnings running at close to half of revenue, and its debt load is moderate at under three times those earnings. A long concession, steady cash flow and a captive ridership are the qualities that tend to draw infrastructure funds and pension money.

For Rio’s commuters, the question is whether new owners change fares or service on a network that millions rely on daily. For investors, the deal is a fresh test of appetite for Brazilian infrastructure at a time when high local interest rates make any long-term concession a careful calculation.

It also lands as Mubadala keeps reshaping its Brazilian portfolio, from a refinery bought from Petrobras to a planned new stock exchange in Rio. Selling the metro stake would let the fund recycle money into those bets while handing a maturing asset to an owner whose core business is running transport day to day.

Whoever buys in would take on a politically sensitive service as well as a financial one. Fares, safety and reliability on the Rio metro are matters of daily public debate, so the next owner inherits scrutiny along with the cash flow.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mubadala selling?

It is seeking buyers for its 51.5 percent controlling stake in HMobi, the company that holds the MetroRio and MetroBarra subway concessions in Rio de Janeiro. Those concessions run until 2048, and the rest of HMobi is owned by Brazilian pension funds.

Is the sale a done deal?

No, and it is early. Mubadala has hired Santander to test interest, but the search for buyers is preliminary and is expected to run for several months before any agreement, if one is reached at all.

How did Mubadala end up owning Rio’s metro?

It inherited the asset in 2021, when a restructuring of debt owed by the previous owner Invepar handed the metro shares to creditors. Mubadala took a controlling stake, and the business was renamed HMobi.

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