Ferrovial Aeropuertos – Sale of a minority stake in BAA Ltd

AviaSolutions was appointed by Ferrovial to support the sale of a minority stake in BAA Ltd, the owner of six UK airports including Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

AviaSolutions provided vendor due diligence services which comprised of a review of BAA’s traffic forecasts, business plan and capital expenditure forecasts for the regulated and unregulated airport businesses.  The analysis involved an assessment of the following:

• Capacity alignment with primary and secondary traffic forecasts and related capital expenditure plans.
• Aeronautical revenue projections at Heathrow and Stansted (where user charges are subject to single-till economic price regulation), and the smaller airports (where user charges are unregulated).
• Commercial revenue projections containing a detailed analysis of each airport’s retail/F&B, car parking and property related risks and opportunities.
• Operational expenditure projections including an assessment of long-run elasticity to volume and potential structural changes.

The scope of the review included site visits and extensive interviews with airport management and BAA executive directors. The process concluded in October 2011, when Alinda Capital Partners acquired a 5.88% share of BAA Ltd for £280 million.