MAG pulls Gatwick bid
MANCHESTER Airport Group’s (MAG) consortium has pulled its bid for Gatwick after failing to meet BAA’s asking price.
But the airport is still understood to be interested in Gatwick and one of BAA’s Scottish airports.
MAG is believed to have withdrawn its bid after refusing to meet BAA’s asking price of £1.5bn – £100m more than the consortium was prepared to pay. The move has been confirmed by a source close to the situation.
MAG had teamed up with Canadian infrastructure fund Borealis and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund. Its offer was the only formal bid being considered.
Its rival Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) – an infrastructure fund started by Credit Suisse and General Electric – had its £1.36m bid rejected in May.
BAA had been hoping to attract bids of £1.8bn for Gatwick, a figure which has since been revised down.
It launched the sale process in September before it was ordered by the competition authorities to sell three airports, including Gatwick.
It is now appealing this order but is committed to selling Gatwick. However, the process has been knocked by the poor economic conditions which have made it harder for potential bidders to raise finance.
A spokesman for MAG said he could neither confirm or deny the report but stressed the group had always been interested in acquiring one of BAA’s other airports in Scotland.
Earlier in the week figures from MAG showed a 19% fall in its underlying profitability and the airport said it would freeze pay across the group.
