Transportation Industry

Company Watch - Ferrovial BAA

AirGuide Business, Sept 8, 2008

Sep 7, 2008

Ferrovial of Spain said on Saturday it had reached a deal to sell Belfast City Airport to ABN Amro Global Infrastructure Fund with the participation of Faros Infrastructure Partners. The sale for GBP132.5 million pounds (USD$233 million) would generate a capital gain of GBP85.6 million, according to initial estimates, said the Spanish building group in a statement. It hopes to close the deal at the end of the month. In May, Belfast City Airport Chief Executive Brian Ambrose was cited in Cinco Dias as saying the airport was worth GBP150 million. Belfast City Airport is not a part of Ferrovial's main British airport operating business BAA. Handling around 2 million passengers every year, Belfast was bought by Ferrovial in 2003. Sep 6, 2008

Ferrovial, which diversified out of a slowing Spanish construction market by buying assets such as London Heathrow owner BAA, was told by the UK Competition Commission late last month it must sell three of the seven British airports it owns. Two must be in London -- meaning Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted -- and one in Scotland. In its statement on Saturday, Ferrovial said the Belfast sale was part of its strategy to focus on its BAA airport business. Ferrovial has also recently sold off its airport retail chain World Duty Free as it seeks to ease massive debts from its purchase of the seven British airports it bought two years ago for GBP10 billion. Sep 6, 2008

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