Ferrovial sells chunk of BAA to American investor

Spain's Ferrovial has cut its stake in BAA to just below 50 per cent after selling a 6 per cent share in the operator of British airports including Heathrow and Stansted.

The sale allows Ferrovial to remove BAA's very sizeable debts from its balance sheet, with the infrastructure specialist also picking up €325m for the sale of 5.88 per cent of BAA to US investor Alinda Capital Partners.

"It's been a good sale at a great price but we don't plan to sell any more at the moment," a spokesman for Ferrovial said. The sale means Ferrovial's stake in BAA will drop to 49.99 per cent, he added. As a result, Ferrovial's accounts will in future show €5.2bn of debt against the current €19.75bn.