News & Analysis

Canadian pension raises stake in Bristol Airport

In a swapping of assets, OTPP has acquired an additional stake in the UK’s Bristol Airport from MAp, while MAp has taken over OTPP’s remaining interest in Copenhagen Airport.

By
Andy Thomson
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Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) has acquired a 35.5 percent stake in Bristol Airport from Macquarie Airports (MAp) for £128 million (€143 million; $204 million), taking its total holding in the airport to approximately 49 percent. OTPP has been an investor in the airport since 2002.

Bristol: OTTP
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At the same time, OTPP reached agreement to sell its entire 3.9 percent interest in Copenhagen Airport to MAp for DKK570 million (€77 million; $109 million).

Since OTPP and MAp reached agreement with regard to the Bristol stake sale in September this year, MAp has been left to rue currency movements which, it says, has left it $22 million out of pocket on the completion of the deal.

Earlier this week, MAp raised its holding in Brussels Airport from 36 percent to 39 percent in a €46 million purchase from Macquarie Global Infrastructure Fund II. The deal arose due to a put option triggered as a result of a management internalisation deal struck earlier this year by which MAp ended its management agreement with Macquarie Group, the owner of Macquarie Global Infrastructure Fund II.