Spanish Bid For UK Airports Operator

After months of speculation the Spanish company Ferrovial finally made a bid for BAA.

It's the Spanish are hungry to snap up UK companies! First Abbey Bank fell into Santander Banks hands, Telefonica want to buy BT and now Ferrovial want to buy BAA.

All the money the Brits have been busy investing in the Costas over the last few years seems to be heading home in different hands!

Below is an extract from the Financial Times

Spanish construction group Ferrovial fell 0.2 per cent to €62.95 after major BAA shareholders, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Standard Life Investments, said on Monday they would not back Ferrovial’s £8.8bn for the British airport operator.

Ferrovial was expected to lobby BAA shareholders this week to back the 810p-a-share offer, before deciding whether to take its bid hostile.

BAA, which owns London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, rejected the bid on Friday. But speculation continued to surround the company, as rumours surfaced that Australian investment group Macquarie Bank was preparing a higher bid.

Tim Cahill at Goldman Sachs said he believed Ferrovial did not expect its initial bid to be successful, considering the stock had been trading above its 810p offer recently. “We think this was a move to gauge management and shareholder reaction and flush out other potential bidders.”