BAAsells Gatwick for 1.5bn
BAA last night reached an agreement to sell Gatwick Airport to the owners of London City Airport for £1.5bn.
The Competition Commission is understood to have approved details of the sale to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) last night and the deal is expected to be announced at some point today.
BAA, a subsidiary of Spain’s Ferrovial infrastructure group, put Gatwick up for sale a year ago in order to head off competition concerns about its market dominance.
The group had initially hoped to sell off Gatwick for up to £1.8bn and it rejected a bid of £1.36bn from GIP earlier this year.
GIP has managed to fight off competition from a consortium including Manchester Airports Group and Borealis, a Canadian infrastructure fund.
The Competition Commission ruled earlier this year that BAA should sell three of its seven airports within two years – Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh.
An appeal against the ruling began in the Competition Appeal Tribunal this week.
GIP is an infrastructure fund backed by Credit Suisse and General Electric, and has an investment in Biffa waste management group.
It paid £742m for London City Airport with AIG in November 2006, and now owns 75 per cent of it.