Macquarie, the Australian investment bank considering a bid for the London Stock Exchange, today won an auction for one of the three highway operators being sold by the French government in a €14.8bn ($17.8bn) privatisation.

The Australian bank, which has teamed up with French construction group Eiffage, will pay €61 per share to buy the state's 70.2% stake in Société des Autoroutes Paris-Rhin Rhône, bringing the total cost of the acquisition to €6.9bn, including the buy-out of minority shareholders.