Ferrovial cashes in on its Belfast asset as George Best is sold
Ferrovial cashes in on its Belfast asset as Dutch fund pays £132.5m for George
Best Airport
Best Airport
a move that bodes well for the Spanish infrastructure company’s likely sale of
Gatwick and Stansted next year.
weekend. It paid £43million for it five years ago.
is expected to be forced to sell some of its other assets next year after a review
by the Competition Commission.
control of airports around London and in Scotland had led to poor service for
passengers and airlines.
Its final report is due by March.
attractive despite the credit crunch and that the sale of BAA’s airports could
raise more than some analysts expect.
the ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund.
result of Ferrovial’s strategy to focus its UK airport business within the BAA
group, manager of various UK airports. The capital gain on sale, in accordance
with preliminary calculations, is £85 million."
airports, should the Commission demand their sale. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin
Group is interested in leading a consortium of buyers for Gatwick, and Manchester
Airports Group also wants to bid for one of the London airports.
and Glasgow and Edinburgh at about £500 million each.
revenue from the BAA sales. This would help to reduce its enormous debt burden,
which Ferrovial said last week was €28.7 billion ( £23.1 billion).
selling non-core assets, including Budapest airport and a stake in Sydney’s airport,
in an attempt to reduce its debt. Ferrovial has also sold World Duty Free and
the Airport Property Partnership, a portfolio of airport office buildings and
warehouses.
airport and we look forward to continuing to serve both our business partners
and our customers. We also look forward to continued investment in the airport
facilities."
to grow to 2.7 million this year. Ferrovial bought the airport from Bombardier,
the Canadian engineering company, in 2003.