September 17, 2008
British airports operator BAA said on Wednesday it is putting London Gatwick Airport up for sale — but vowed to fight to retain the rest of its portfolio.
“We have decided to begin the process of selling Gatwick Airport immediately,” Colin Matthews, chief executive of Spanish owned-BAA, told reporters in Toronto.
Sector sources said Gatwick, one of Europe’s busiest airports with 35 million passengers, could fetch between GBP2 billion and GBP3 billion pounds (USD$3.57 billion – USD$5.35 billion).
A string of potential buyers have already registered an interest, while Virgin Atlantic said on Wednesday it was interested in bidding as part of a consortium.
Frankfurt operator Fraport and German builder Hochtief have expressed possible interest, as has Singapore-owned Changi Airports International.
The move is a response to Britain’s Competition Commission, which last month said in a provisional ruling that BAA must sell three of its seven UK airports, including two of London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and one of Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland.
BAA said it disagreed with the Competition Commission’s analysis, and that it will try to keep Stansted airport to the north of London as a change of ownership could interfere with the airport’s expansion.
The firm added that it would also “continue to present our case” in Scotland, where it also owns Aberdeen airport.
“At Stansted, we believe that a change of ownership would interfere with the process of securing planning approval for a second runway, which remains a key feature of government air transport policy,” Matthews said.
Separately, in a meeting with Spanish press in Toronto, the CEO of Ferrovial Airports division Inigo Meiras said it is interested in the privatization of Spanish airports authority Aena and is also eyeing other airports outside the UK.
This summer the Spanish government said it would privatize 30 percent of Aena, which has been valued at EUR30 billion euros (USD$42.59 billion).
“We are not obviously going to look at airports in England, but outside yes we will do so.”
Meiras also said Ferrovial expects to complete its planned GBP1.5 billion (USD$2.68 billion) bond issue before year-end.
(Reuters)
This should make the airports compete a bit more, great piece of business