BAA Break up??

Uh, as far as I understand Ferrovial is not a country, but a corporation. Anyway, it hurts to be considered “some second rate European nation” :confused: I´m proud of my country and I don´t see it as a second rate european nation nor as a super power. I don´t have problems with Vodafone having a big presence here in Spain, so I can´t see the problem with a spanish corp purchasing BAA stocks.

I quite agree, we’ve been the ‘United States of Europe’ in a business sense for quite some time now.

Ok, roughly what we were told today:

– BAA are advising the shareholders to accept the offer of £9.50 per share, but it’s not totally finished yet. Goldman Sachs could still up that. Either way, it is still to be accepted by the major shareholders.

– Ferrovial do buy the majority shares, it is possible for a fast transaction to be made and for it all to be transfered by the end of the month (quick, I know).

– Ferrovial are interested in BAA because of the profits it makes and the progress of the company and ass such it is thought that nothing dramatic would change any time soon as they are obviously keen on how things are being done at the moment.

– The offer is for £10billion plus payment of the £5billion debt

– The aiports would still be run under the “BAA” brand and company (ie terms and conditions of contracts, staff (to an extent), contracts) – all that is really changing is the majority share holder and hence who has the greatest influence of what progress is made with the airports and (if they wish) which ones they would not like to keep

hope this is of some use

Ferrovial invested alot on BHD. I think this will be a plus for UK not a drawback!

At this rate I’ll be moving to Spain first Abbey and now BAA, (subject to Share holder approval).

Paul

I think its a sad day for the UK Aviation Industry. The last thing we are actually world class at in aviation and we sell it to some second rate European nation.

Uh, as far as I understand Ferrovial is not a country, but a corporation. Anyway, it hurts to be considered “some second rate European nation” :confused: I´m proud of my country and I don´t see it as a second rate european nation nor as a super power. I don´t have problems with Vodafone having a big presence here in Spain, so I can´t see the problem with a spanish corp purchasing BAA stocks.

Hence my use of the future tense.

I don’t believe the OFT has actually ordered anything to be sold, and until then nothing has to be sold in the UK;

Doubt the foreign airports will be sold off, they were acquired very recently for strategic growth reasons and I dont see Ferrovial taking a different view on that. The only airports that will be required to be sold will be those in the UK which the OFT say have become anti competitive.

Is suspect if the Govt had still had their 35% they would have tried to fight the takeover.

The CAA has announced that Ferrovial will have to keep commitments to expanding and improving the airports officially outlined in the Govt’s plan. And as it is the CAA the tells BAA what to charge for landing fee’s etc etc, don’t expect to be able to hike prices to pay for them. Ferrovial is expected to have around £15billion of debt along with BAA’s £7billion of debt which they will take over……so £22billion of debt?…My guess is BAA’s foreign owned airports will be sold first (budapest etc etc) followed closely by gatwick which is valued around £2.5-£3Billion.

Ableit…i bet Gordon Brown isn’t too chuffed, especially when European Court ordered that the Govt’s 35% stake in BAA was illegal……so if it had kept the shares…thats a few billion into HM’s Coffers…..Would of Kept Pauline Prescott in hairspray for a few years at least!

I would have thought perhaps a greater chance of Ferrovial disposing of ABZ, as it is a lot smaller than the others.

Few years ago I would have been overjoyed at BAA selling off ABZ, but now they’ve announced the expansion plan, can’t help wondering if the timing of all this (being selfish!) is all wrong in terms of expansion.

Can only wait & see I guess.

Having a local interest, I would suspect that the smaller airports may well be the primary ones for sell off – if I am right, then (George Best) Belfast City could well be near the top of the list. Ferrovial are bound to be becoming totally fed up at the opposition to any expansion there (thanks in no small part to BFS) and may well decide to cut their losses and offload it – I sincerely hope this does not happen but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did!

Any sell off of airports will probably be some years down the road. I mean this takeover will probably not be officially signed and sealed until well into the end of the year.
After than I would expect a long term review of BAA services and requirements, then a decision on what assets to dispose of, I would expect that one of the Scottish Airports may also be sold, and as user of Edinburgh Airport I believe competition between EA and GA would be a good thing.

Then the BBC breakfast news team had it all wrong. I was just going by what they said.

No Sandy, you didn’t get it wrong, and neither did BBC, but at one point there was a bit of confusion as to whether they had signed the agreement or not…

Most importantly though, did anyone see Michael O’Leary’s response?

He said that a new owner would be able to do wonders to the air transport indsutry within the UK, because he said that BAA have not designed the airports in a customer-friendly way (hinted at long walks from the dep lounge to gates!). He also said that its about time that the London airports were split down into individual companies, to allow greater competition and also to allow each airport to set its own charges, which if applied to STN would be able to lead to even lower fares to for its customers!

So, a takeover of ownership could have some advantages for the ‘price-sensitive’ fliers amongst us… 😀

I would have to agree with him, but for a different reason, lower fees and charges would lead to better competition between airlines as well as airports in general.

All we need now is for the EU-US ‘open-skies’ agreement to be ratified, and we will have a much better industry overall, imho.

Yeah I would suspect so, they are going to be taking on a lot of debt to make the purchase of BAA so higher profit it likely to be first on the agenda. Probably either selling off an airport or increasing landing fees.

Although its a very long shot – lets hope the new owners have a more enlightened attitude towards viewing facilities.
Unfortunately I think the reality will be geared towards how to make more money.

I think its a sad day for the UK Aviation Industry. The last thing we are actually world class at in aviation and we sell it to some second rate European nation.

Not so Sandy, your jumping the gun a bit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5050932.stm
the offer still needs to go to the share holders.

Further info also available on BAAs own web site- baa.com media

Paul

Then the BBC breakfast news team had it all wrong. I was just going by what they said.

Not so Sandy, your jumping the gun a bit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5050932.stm
the offer still needs to go to the share holders.

Further info also available on BAAs own web site- baa.com media

Paul

More breaking news

BAA have signed an agreement. A Spanish building company now owns BAA.