Balfour Set to Bid for Airport Stake

By BEN MARLOW

BALFOUR Beatty is on a list of potential bidders for a 24 per cent stake in Britain’s fifth-biggest airport, Birmingham International.

The engineering giant, which is already bidding for Leeds- Bradford Airport, is one of a number of companies competing for the Birmingham stake, which is held by Australian bank Macquarie.

Other bidders include Germany’s Fraport Group, which owns Frankfurt airport, private equity group Carlyle and investment group Babcock Brown.

Any buyer of the Macquarie holding, which was bought for Pounds 84 million in 2001 and is now valued at about Pounds 130 million, is also likely to buy the 24 per cent stake held by Dublin Airport Authority.

Though the seven West Midlands councils, which own about 49 per cent of Birmingham International Airport, are not on the list of bidders after disagreeing with Macquarie about price, they have the right to match any offer.

Almost three per cent of the airport’s shares are held in an employee trust.

The councils view public ownership of the airport, which handled more than nine million passengers last year on 50 airlines, as vital for the region because it is a major driver of economic growth.

(c) 2007 Mail on Sunday; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.