In 2006, abertis acquired the French concessions company sanef (Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l’Est de la France), after the French government awarded the privatisation contract to Holding d’Infrastructures de Transport (HIT), led by abertis with a 52.5% stake, and with fellow shareholders as Caisse de Dépôts, the insurance group AXA, the French investment fund Predica, and FFP, a company controlled by the Peugeot family.

The acquisition of sanef by the abertis group meant an increase in the tollroads managed by abertis by some 1,757 km of tollroads in northern France, a densely populated area with a highly dynamic economy. sanef manages four of the seven access lanes for each tollroad in the north of France, an area of great economic dynamism and with a high population density. sanef manages four of the seven tollroad access routes to Ile de France (the Paris region) and also the traffic connecting Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg with the north of France and the United Kingdom.

abertis also boasts a strategic presence in Portuguese tollroad operator Brisa (14.58%).

In the UK, it has presence with a 25% stake in operator RMG, holder of the concessions over the A1-M (21 km) and the A419/417 (52 km).