Airport deal off
A group controlled by Australia’s Macquarie Bank has walked away from a deal to buy Exeter Airport complaining about the length of the process after the deal was referred to the Competition Commission.
The deal collapsed after Macquarie, which formed half of the South West Airports consortium, said that a Commission investigation into the purchase would add another six months to the deal. The Office of Fair Trading had initially looked at the deal, before referring it to the Commission.
The other half of the consortium was Spanish building and support services group Ferrovial. The consortium had been negotiating to buy 90 per cent of the airport from Devon City Council.
Macquarie, which owns Sydney Airport, announced its intention to exit the deal through a formal announcement on the Australian Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
A Macquarie spokeswoman said: “The process just kept dragging on and it’s a very small acquisition from our perspective.”
Also today, plans to transform Luton Airport into one of the country’s busiest terminals with hundreds more flights carrying millions more passengers were unveiled today, by the airport’s owners, Barcelona-based Abertis.
Abertis is due to submit plans late in 2006 or early 2007 for a full-length replacement runway and a new south terminal to be completed in time for the London 2012 Olympics.
However, before that Luton will seek the go-ahead for an extension of existing facilities, with most of the work due for completion by the end of 2007.