Low Gatwick passenger number may hit price-bidders
Gatwick after latest passenger numbers there disappointed, putting downward pressure
on its valuation, bidders said on Thursday.
Spanish construction firm Ferrovial, significantly over-estimated passenger numbers
for March, which anyone setting a price for a bid would take into account.
BAA was subsequently also ordered to sell London’s Stansted and either Edinburgh
or Glasgow airports.
for BAA aren’t the best for a sale,” added another source associated with one
of the bidders.
year, against a 7.5% fall at Heathrow and 15.9% declines at Stansted.
because of its reliance on revenues from “bucket and spade” summer charter flights.
would find it difficult to achieve a premium to the Regulatory Asset Base value
of 1.6 billion pounds ($2.33 billion).
asset base,” he said. He added that it was “totally reasonable” that the passenger
numbers would affect the price.
of 3 billion pounds.
as 1.3 billion which is a 20 percent discount to RAB which wouldn’t be out of
line with other utilities in the UK,” added Fitchie.
of highly competitive bids next week,” he said.
the end of March, giving bidders more time to finalise due diligence and financing
arrangements.
airport, which was valued at up to 2 billion pounds.
City Airport; Lysander Gatwick Investment Group, comprising Citi Infrastructure Partners, Vancouver Airport Services and John
Hancock Life Insurance Company; and a third consortium consisting of Manchester Airports Group, Borealis and Greater Manchester Pension
Fund.
defying expectations that a slump in travel would stymie the auction, three people
close to the sale said.
Citi Infrastructure Investors; and a third team that includes the owner of Manchester
Airport plan to submit offers before the April 27 deadline, said the people, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
the second-busiest London airport," said Douglas McNeill, a London-based transport
analyst at Blue Oar Securities. "There was speculation that one of the three remaining
bidders would drop out on the grounds that they wouldn’t be able to raise the
debt."
by Gatwick’s owner BAA Ltd. The company is seeking more than the 1.64 billion-pound
($2.14 billion) valuation put on Gatwick by Britain’s aviation regulator, just
as the credit crisis and a slump in travel deter bidders.
airlines to cut capacity. That decline is being exacerbated as carriers move flights
to Gatwick’s bigger rival, Heathrow, under the "Open Skies" treaty with the U.S.
groups led by 3i Infrastructure Plc and a Deutsche Bank AG fund withdrew the following
month.
the country’s 10 biggest airports, should be should be broken up. The airport
operator will also have to sell Stansted airport and a terminal in Edinburgh or
Glasgow, Scotland.
The money raised by the Gatwick sale will be used to reduce some of the debt used
to finance BAA’s takeover.
of highly competitive bids next week," said Malcolm Robertson, a London-based
spokesman for BAA.
in buying Gatwick, Chief Executive Officer Michael Nobrega said in a March 27
interview. The Canadian pension plan’s Borealis Infrastructure unit is bidding
with the owner of Manchester Airport. Officials at Manchester Airport and Global
Infrastructure Partners declined to comment.
Airport Services and John Hancock Life Insurance Co., remains in the auction,
according to spokesman Steve Double.
U.K. terminals a year later. It sold shares to the public in 1987 as part of then
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s disposal of state assets.