London: Heathrow Airport Holdings (HAH) is set to sell three British airports for £1bn ($1.6bn) to a group including Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial, Singapore sovereign fund GIC and Australian bank Macquarie, according to Sky News.
Quoting unnamed insiders, Sky News said yesterday the investors would take equity stakes in the three airports — Aberdeen and Glasgow in Scotland and Southampton in southern England — in a deal which could be announced in days.
Ferrovial, HAH, GIC and Macquarie declined to comment. Ferrovial has a 25 percent stake in HAH and is its largest shareholder alongside Qatar Holding, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, GIC, Alinda Capital Partners, China Investment Corp and the Universities Superannuation Scheme.
Ferrovial was reported to have made an £800m offer for the three airports in February.
The sale of the three regional airports would leave HAH with just Heathrow, the west London hub that ranks as Britain’s busiest and the world’s third busiest airport. Heathrow accounts for 95 percent of HAH’s annual profit.
HAH would then be free to focus on its plan to gain government approval to build a third runway at Heathrow, an issue which has been at the centre of a long-running political tussle. The three regional airports were put up for sale by HAH in August, when the group said it hoped to conclude a transaction by the end of 2014. Sky News also said GIC’s involvement was being finalised and it may not be publicly named as an investor when the deal is formally announced.
Meanwhile, EasyJet has raised profit estimates after a strike by Air France pilots brought in an extra £5m of bookings for the UK budget airline. In a trading update, easyJet forecast pre-tax profit of between £575m and £580m for the year to 30 September. It had previously guided investors to expect profit between £535m and £570m.
The company said a strike last month by Air France pilots resulted in passengers switching to easyJet, increasing revenue by £5m. Passenger numbers rose 7.5 percent to 6.14 million in September, filling more seats per plane. Fuel costs were £2m lower than expected in the second half of the year. The airline’s shares rose 6 percent to £14.52 by early afternoon trading and were the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100 index.
EasyJet’s chief executive, Carolyn McCall, said: “We finished the year strongly. easyJet has continued to execute its strategy, delivering another strong performance in the second half of the year. This has enabled easyJet to deliver record profits for the fourth year in a row.”
EasyJet is planning the company’s biggest dividend payment after it decided to pay out 40 percent of profits to shareholders, up from 33 percent. The news should help placate easyJet’s founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose family owns about 35 percent of shares and has called for higher dividends instead of the company buying extra planes. He believes easyJet should pay out closer to half its profits to shareholders.
Agencies
