Ferrovial in move to cut its stake in BAA

SPANISH infrastructure group Ferrovial is in talks with investors to offload 10 per cent of UK airport operator BAA in a move to slash €20.5 billion (£17.3bn) of debt.

Ferrovial owns 55.9 per cent of BAA, which operates airports including Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Heathrow.

By dropping its holding below 50 per cent, the Spanish firm will no longer need to consolidate BAA's debt of about €14bn on its balance sheet.

BAA's other shareholders are pension fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and GIC Special Investments, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund.

Ferrovial will seek offers for the stake - estimated last year to be worth about €200 million - during the final week of January, with the aim of clinching a deal by June.

The BAA sale plan emerged in October and the infrastructure group hired bankers from Goldman Sachs and HSBC to sell the stake during November.

Ferrovial chief executive Inigo Meiras said: "(Talks] are mainly with infrastructure funds, sovereign wealth funds and big investors like pension funds, mainly from the US and Britain."

The Spanish company sold 10 per cent of its lucrative Canadian 407 Express Toll Route to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board for C$894m (571m) last year.