BAA facing forced sale of two airports after Gatwick

Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial, the owner of UK airports operator BAA, is facing a struggle as it tries to persuade anti-monopoly regulators to allow it to hold on to its other airports across the UK in the face of challenges with the Gatwick sale.

A Competition Commission report that is due to be released later this month is expected to demand that Ferrovial/BAA sell Stansted airport and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport in Scotland. Their owner is attempting to retain as many of its airports as it can.

The airports operator pre-empted the official requirement to sell Gatwick airport, the second-busiest in Britain, by offering it for sale at auction.

A number of bidders on Gatwick withdrew from the process this week, which is undoubtedly of concern to Ferrovial management and which could also negatively influence the final sale price.

This is increasing pressure on the heavily-indebted Spanish company to maintain as many of its other six UK airports as possible. The seven airports were acquired when it purchased BAA for £10.3 billion in 2006.

An unidentified company source said: “There is no heat in our dialogues with the regulator on Gatwick [a subject on which] we see eye to eye. That is not the case on other matters.”

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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