Credit crisis forces BAA to delay refinancing
9.4.2008 (Telegraph)
BAA, the airports operator at the centre of the chaotic opening of Heathrow’s
Terminal 5, has been forced to delay its planned £10bn refinancing.
The owner of seven British airports – acquired in 2006 for £16.3bn, including
debts, by a consortium led by Spanish group Ferrovial – said only last month it
planned to complete the refinancing by the end of June.
Now it expects completion “early in the third quarter of 2008”. The credit crisis
has put paid to plans for long-term bond financing for its regulated airports
– Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
BAA said it was “initially considering a combination of bank and bond financing
to maximise the chances of a successful and timely completion of the refinancing
in the current challenging debt capital markets”.
Its four unregulated airports – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton
– will be refinanced via bank debt.