OMERS airports unit buys Abertis assets

ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide, whose majority shareholder is Canada’s Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), has acquired two European and one US airport from Spanish developer Abertis, the latter announced today.

Belfast International and Stockholm Skavsta airports, two terminal concessions at the Orlando Sanford Airport, in the US, and a US airport management business were sold to ADC & HAS for an enterprise value of €284 million. Abertis had owned the assets since 2005 and they were expected to contribute €78 million in revenues to the company’s consolidated accounts this year.

The deal is still pending the necessary regulatory approvals.

Abertis has been winding down its airports portfolio, having sold nearly all the assets in British operator TBI, which it had acquired together with Spanish airports operator AENA in 2005. Abertis owns 90 percent of TBI.

Earlier this year, it sold Cardiff Airport back to the Welsh government for €61 million and in June it emerged that French fund manager AXA Private Equity had teamed up with AENA and was in exclusive negotiations to buy Luton Airport for some €400 million. As the other shareholder in TBI, AENA had pre-emption rights on Luton Airport.

Assuming Abertis successfully sells Luton Airport and the ADC & HAS deal is approved by the relevant authorities, the Spanish company will have disposed of all of the airports under the TBI umbrella, which handled a combined 23 million passengers last year.

In addition to TBI, Abertis Airports also includes ownership of DCA, a holding company for several vehicles with stakes in 15 airports across Mexico, Jamaica, Chile and Colombia. DCA’s airports handled an aggregate 39 million passengers last year.

In all, Abertis Airports recorded €319 million in revenues and €93 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in 2012.

For ADC & HAS, the Abertis deal will add geographic diversification to a portfolio which is now made up exclusively of Latin American airports.

ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide was initially the result of a partnership between Canada’s Airport Development Corporation (ADC) – an airport development and airport facilities company with experience in airport privatisations – and US airport operator HAS Development Corporation (HASDC), an affiliate of Houston Airport System.

Today, ADC & HAS is a privately-held corporation, headquartered in Houston. In addition to OMERS, ADC and HAS hold minority stakes in the global airport equity operator.