Macquarie and Fraport 'may bid for BAA airport'
13.08.07
In a story of speculation on speculation, the Sunday Express reports that Macquarie Bank, Australia's largest investment bank, and Fraport AG, Frankfurt Airport's owner, may bid for one or more of BAA's UK airports.
The newspaper, which does name its source, is firstly speculating that BAA will be forced to sell an airport - any final decision by the Competition Commission on which is at least 2 years away - and then that the current big airport companies would outbid infrastructure funds to reenter an already expensive UK airport market. They seem to forget that Macquarie recently sold its investment in Birmingham airport and the Fraport has not been a serious bidder in any of the recent airport sales.
The Express says that Macquarie and Fraport are among the companies that have expressed interest in buying one or more of BAA's airports in the southeast England - Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick.
If the commission forces it to sell any of the airports, BAA would probably keep Heathrow, according to the newspaper. Heathrow may be valued at up to £11 billion, Gatwick at £1.6 billion and Stansted at £1.5 billion, recent press reports suggest. However, BAA has said that it wants to keep its all of its seven UK airports and has rejected potential bidders, the newspaper said.
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