Macquarie ready to buy a UK airport

Macquarie Bank is ready to buy one of the UK’s major airports should British Airports Authority sell one of them.

The British weekend press was alive with speculation that Ferrovial owned BAA may be forced to relinquish one of the UK’s airports due to mounting debts and competition concerns.

The two companies have apparently already been in negotiations. However, a BAA spokesman is reported to have said that none of the airports are up for sale.

The Spanish infrastructure group, Ferrovial, is understood to be studying all the options as it attempts to refinance £7.4bn (US$14.7bn) worth of debt it took on when it bought BAA two years ago.

Should any of the airports come up for sale they likely to be in the south east and could be Stansted, Gatwick and possibly even Heathrow.