New ownership
In June 2006, BAA was bought by Airport Development and Investment Limited, a company formed by a consortium led by Spanish company Ferrovial. Two months later, in August, BAA delisted from the London Stock Exchange. But who is Ferrovial? And what does the acquisition mean for our customers?
Listed on Madrid’s Stock Exchange, Ferrovial is one of the world’s leading construction groups specialising in four lines of business: airports, construction, transport infrastructure and services.
The company has around 100,000 employees and activities in the UK, Spain, Portugal and nine other European countries. It remains the only Spanish construction group to be selected for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, one of the world’s leading benchmark’s for sustainability and is also included on the FTSE4Good index for socially responsible companies.
Ferrovial’s key strategy, in recent years, has been international expansion which has been underpinned by a large capital expenditure programme. Between 1997 and 2006 Ferrovial invested nearly 12,500 million euros in this programme, 96% of which was allocated to infrastructure and services. As a result, Ferrovial has evolved from a company reliant on cyclical activities such as construction, to a group with 60% of its operating profit coming from transport infrastructure and services.
The acquisition brings many benefits to BAA including new financing opportunities and fresh management talent. The core management systems remain in place and the only major departure from existing strategies has been the decision to concentrate on our UK airports’ business. Consequently the sale of Budapest Airport was completed in June 2007 and BAA is planning to sell its interests Australia and Italy.
