Catalan mobility and telecom company Abertis has sold London Luton Airport for €502 million

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan based mobility and telecommunications giant Abertis has today reported that it has sold London Luton airport in a deal worth €502 million. Luton is the UK’s fifth busiest airport and has been bought by a consortium made up of the publicly-owned Spanish Airport Authority (AENA) – which will own 51% - and the French AXA  Private Equity (49%). The deal is said to be worth €502 million It was estimated that the asset would have brought in €141 million to the company’s revenue and €46 million to the EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) for 2013. Luton airport has been part of Abertis since 2005 following their acquisition together with AENA International from the British operator TBI. Abertis reported last week that it has also made an agreement with ACN & HAS Airports Worldwide for the sale of Stockholm Skavsta and Belfast International airports, as well as the concessions of the terminal of Orlando Sanford Airport and TBI’s US airport management business for €284 million. The Luton deal is currently pending approval from the competition authorities, the Spanish Government and Luton Borough Council. It forms part of Abertis’s strategy to alter its portfolio with the result of optimising its asset base.

The announcement reveals the latest part of Abertis’s strategy to reduce its ownership of airports. This March, the company reached an agreement with the Welsh Government for the sale of Cardiff airport for €61 million. Now Abertis’s airport business is limited to its stake in Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP) in Mexico and the concession of Montego Bay airport in Jamaica. Both of these assets are currently for sale.

Abertis: a top infrastructure company on an international level

Abertis, based in Barcelona, manages both mobility and telecommunications infrastructures in three main business areas: toll roads, telecommunications infrastructures and airports. The company has recently expanded its market share in Latin America and for the first half of 2013 has made a profit of €293 million. It is the largest toll road operator in countries such as Spain and Chile and is the third largest in Europe directly managing 7,000 kilometres of road. This year the company obtained nine toll road commissions in Brazil and three in Chile in deals which have contributed €488 million to its revenue for the past months. In its different business areas Abertis is present in 12 European and Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and the UK. Last week it announced, it has bought a 16.42% stake in the Spanish communication satellite group Hispasat, increasing its share to 57.05% and therefore giving it control of the satellite operator.