BAA lost £277m on Gatwick sale Business The Guardian

Gatwic was sole by BAA to the US investment account GIP, owners of City airport, for £1.5bn. Photograph: Martin Godwin

BAA"s sale of Gatwick airfield last year carried a large monetary cost, the organisation certified today, as it reported an annual pre-tax loss of £821.9m.

The airfield owner"s total were strike by multiform non-cash charges together with £277.3m of waste associated to the sale of Britain"s second-largest airfield to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a US investment fund. The organisation arch executive, Colin Matthews, pronounced the write-down reflected the actuality that Gatwick was sole for less than the value on BAA"s books. GIP, owners of City airport, paid £1.5bn for the Sussex airport.

Matthews said: "We don"t bewail offered Gatwick. We got a great result but it was not a great year for offered airports and the write-down of £277m was a effect of that." BAA sole Gatwick after determining that the open mood, and a Competition Commission inquiry, done long-term tenure of the airfield untenable. It additionally helped strike scarcely £1bn off a poignant debt weight that right away stands at £8.5bn for BAA SP, the auxiliary that owns Heathrow and Stansted.

Revenues at BAA SP rose 8.3% to £1.97bn in 2009 notwithstanding Heathrow and Stansted estimate 3.3 million fewer passengers as the retrogression strike direct for air travel. Higher alighting fees – the theme of sour complaints from Ryanair and easyJet at Stansted – helped BAA enlarge turnover, whilst sell income, that accounts for scarcely a entertain of organisation revenues, rose by 4.8%. BAA took £665m value of charges in the results, with the Gatwick write-down assimilated by a £217.8m strike from the group"s grant intrigue and £117.4m value of waste associated to BAA"s debts.

Matthews pronounced BAA was underneath no vigour to sell an additional airfield notwithstanding confronting a debt remuneration of £1.56bn due in Apr 2011. The Competition Commission has systematic BAA to sell Stansted and one of the Scottish airports – Glasgow or Edinburgh – but that routine is on hold since the airfield organisation has appealed successfully opposite the outcome and the commission could be forced to re-run the complete inquiry. "Even if we don"t sell an airport, there are opposite mechanisms for re-financing that debt," pronounced Matthews.

BAA"s infancy shareholder, Ferrovial, validated the joining to the organisation last year by subsidy a £500m equity injection in to the company. The investment helped BAA launch dual bonds, that lifted £925m for the group.

Matthews additionally indicated BAA"s await for an pick high-speed rail track from London to Birmingham that runs by Heathrow. The supervision is accepted to be deliberation a track that connects to Heathrow around a coax or double back off Old Oak Common in west London. However, the Conservative celebration is thought to be meddlesome in a offer by Arup – the organisation that written the High Speed One track from London to the Channel hovel – that uses Heathrow as a vital rail heart on the main line. Matthews said: "From the Heathrow point of perspective we wish connectivity, so we will of march disagree for the most appropriate probable tie for passengers."

The Tories, who have affianced to set up a high-speed couple instead of a third runway, have indifferent the right to pull up a opposite London-to-Birmingham track if they win the election. The supervision is due to tell a high-speed rail white paper, together with a minute route, subsequent month.