23rd October 2009

BAA sells Gatwick  

U.K. airports operator BAA today reached an agreement   to sell London's Gatwick Airport for 1.5 billion pounds as part of forced sale over enhance competition.

Of the sale price, 55 million pounds is conditional on future traffic performance and the buyer's future capital structure. BAA had put Gatwick for sale in September 2008, before a final ruling from the Competition Commission that it had to sell the airport, as well as London Stansted and airports in either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Gatwick is the busiest single-runway airport in the world, handling 32.2 million passengers in the year to September.During the first half of the year, Gatwick earned 68.7 million pounds before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, on revenue of 217 million pounds.

BAA will use proceeds from the Gatwick sale to pay back debt. BAA carried 14.6 billion euros of debt at the end of the first half.

BAA's crown jewel, however, is London's Heathrow, which carried 65.7 million passengers during that time period. "BAA will focus on improving Heathrow and our other airports," the company said in a statement.

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