AUSTRALIA. Macquarie Airports (MAp) confirmed today that it has completed the acquisition of an additional 15.1% interest in Sydney Airport for a purchase price of A$663 million.
MAp exercised its call option over Ferrovial’s 20.9% interest in Sydney Airport on 27 February, an agreement that was struck as Ferrovial negotiated to buy BAA last year, when Macquarie Bank acted as an adviser.
The exercise of the option was subject to the existing pre-emptive arrangements among the other shareholders in Sydney Airport. These shareholders exercised their pre-emptive rights in full. Macquarie now owns 70.9% of Sydney Airport.
Sydney Airport passenger traffic increased by +7% in February, and international traffic rose by +4.2%.
The number of Australian travellers increased +4% and there was growth from the UK (+1%), NZ (4%), China (+37%), India (+21%), Germany (+9%) and France (+1%). There were falls in markets such as the US (-1%), Japan (-13%), South Korea (-7%) and Canada (-2%).
Among Macquarie’s other airport properties, Rome showed the strongest performance. Traffic at the city’s two airports increased by a combined +7.8%. Fiumicino passenger numbers increased by +6.2% while at Ciampino they rose by +17.2%. The company said growth was driven by increased long haul services to India and Northern Africa and increased short haul services to Central and Eastern Europe.
Traffic at Copenhagen Airport was -0.6% lower than last year due to five days of bad weather which led to the cancellation of some 800 flights. Domestic traffic and international traffic were up +6.8% and +6.5%, respectively. Transfer traffic was -14.7% below last year, a continuation of the recent trend towards more point-to-point travel and the diversion of transfer passengers via other airports during the bad weather, said Macquarie.
At Brussels Airport traffic increased by +2.3% over February 2006 with chargeable departing passengers up +2.7%. Intra-EU traffic increased +0.7% as growth on routes to Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe was offset by reduced traffic to the UK and Spain. Extra-EU traffic increased +6.7% driven by the new Etihad, Hainan and Ethiopian routes and strong charter traffic to northern Africa and Turkey.
Birmingham Airport traffic was -3.0% lower than last February, negatively impacted by two days of poor weather which led to some flight cancellations and diversions. Domestic traffic increased by +1.3% while international traffic decreased by -4.0%. Charter traffic was -4.1% lower, continuing recent trends in reduced capacity.
Bristol Airport traffic increased +3.6% with international traffic up +10.4%. Growth was driven by additional low-fare capacity.
MORE STORIES ON MACQUARIE AIRPORTS
Macquarie Airports exercises Sydney Airport option and reveals solid results for 2006 – 27/02/07
Macquarie Airports enjoys good all-round performance in December – 30/01/07
Aer Rianta International and Macquarie Airports to sell their stake in Birmingham Airport – 15/01/07
Macquarie Bank appointed to handle sale of BAA’s Australian airport assets – 03/01/07
Ferrovial agrees sale of stakes in Sydney, Bristol airports to Macquarie – 01/12/06
