Ferrovial makes a bid to take on a trio of Britain’s regional airports
THE BIGGEST investor in Heathrow’s parent firm has offered to buy out Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports from the company, it emerged yesterday.
Ferrovial, a Spanish infrastructure group, holds a 25 per cent stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings (HAH), which owns Heathrow as well as the trio of smaller airports.
Ferrovial offered £800m to take the airports out of HAH, according to Spanish newspaper Expansion.
The firm has discussed a joint bid for the three airports with at least two Australian funds, Macquarie and Industry Funds Management (IFM), Expansion said, citing industry sources. None of the companies involved would comment yesterday.
Ferrovial took control of HAH when it was known as BAA back in 2006, but has since reduced its stake and brought in other investors.
Last year it sold an 8.65 per cent stake to the Universities Superannuation Scheme, which looks after British academic pensions.
HAH also previously owned Stansted and Gatwick but sold out after a competition ruling.
Analysts said the price tag implied a multiple of 13 times the three airports’ estimated 2013 earnings.