French private equity firm Ardian is buying a 15% stake in Heathrow from Ferrovial and Saudi Arabia鈥檚 Public Investment Fund (which also owns Newcastle United Football Club) is taking the other 10%.
Heathrow鈥檚 other major shareholders are the Qatar Investment Authority (20%) and Singapore鈥檚 GIC sovereign wealth fund (11.2%) and the Australian Retirement Trust (also 11.2%).
Ferrovial took control of Heathrow Airport in 2006 but reduced its then 56% shareholding to 25% 10 years ago.
According to analysis by Alistair Osborne, the chief business commentator of The Times, the sale indicates that Ferrovial has given up hope of the long-planned third runway being 聽built at Heathrow. 鈥淚f Ferrovial thought there was a realistic prospecr of the juicy construction contracts and related management fees that come with a mega-project, it wouldn鈥檛 be selling,鈥� he wrote.
Since 2012 Ferrovial鈥檚 construction business has been paid 拢600m by Heathrow plus a half share of the 拢750m to its joint venture with Laing O鈥橰ourke, Osborne noted.
Luke Bugeja, chief executive of Ferrovial Airports, said: 鈥淥ver the last 17 years, we have been contributing to Heathrow鈥檚 transformation, together with our fellow shareholders, achieving some excellent milestones throughout our long-term role as investor. These include overseeing an investment of 拢12bn pounds, expanding its capacity with the construction of Terminal 2, and improving its operational performance. We are very pleased to have made Heathrow one of the world鈥檚 most connected airports and the busiest airport in Europe.鈥�
Ferrovial still holds a 50% share in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports in the United Kingdom, a 60% in Dalaman Airport in Turkey and 49% in JFK Airport New Terminal One in New York, USA.
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