The owner of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports is being sold in a deal worth more than £1.5bn.
The Spanish construction company Ferrovial and its partner Macquarie have agreed to offload the AGS Airports joint venture to AviAlliance, a German-headquartered airport operator.
As part of the deal, which is expected to complete early next year, AviAlliance will pay £900m for the business and take on £653m in debt.
Ferrovial and Macquarie’s 50/50 AGS joint venture was established in 2014 after their £1.05bn acquisition of the three airports from Heathrow Airport Holdings. The airports serve about 10.8 million passengers annually and support more than 30,000 jobs.
AviAlliance will add the three airports to its portfolio that incudes airports in Athens in Greece, Dusseldorf and Hamburg in Germany, and San Juan in Puerto Rico. It is owned by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investors), one of Canada’s largest pension investors.
PSP already has a number of transport investments in the UK. It holds a majority stake in Forth Ports, an operator of eight UK ports including Grangemouth in Scotland’s central belt and the Port of Tilbury in Essex. It also has a majority stake in Angel Trains, the largest rolling stock company in the UK, which provides trains to the majority of the country’s train operating companies.
UK airports have seen a significant recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic grounded most planes and brought the sector to a standstill. Many have smashed passenger records this year, with a record 30.7 million passengers travelling through Heathrow between June and September. Manchester Airports Group has also had record traffic in the past 12 months at its Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports.
Last November, Ferrovial sold its 25% stake in Heathrow in a deal worth £2.4bn, with the private equity fund Ardian taking 15% and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund acquiring a 10% stake. It had bought a 56% stake in Britain’s busiest airport in 2006, which it reduced to 25% in 2013.
Macquarie said AGS had invested £250m in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports since 2014. This included a £17m runway extension at Southampton, which opened earlier this year, and a £20m investment into Aberdeen international airport.
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Gerhard Schroeder, the managing director of AviAlliance, said: “Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports provide vital connectivity for communities in Scotland and the south-east of England. As a seasoned airport investor and manager with in-depth industry expertise, AviAlliance will enable each airport to realise their full potential.”