With air traffic and the travel industry taking off once again since the end of the pandemic, Canadian pension fund owner Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTTP) is allegedly looking to cash in on that resurgence by selling its shares in 5 different European airports in what is looking to be at least a £3.5 billion sale. OTPP is one of Canada’s Maple 8 funds, which collectively manage about $2 trillion in taxpayer-backed pension schemes for teachers, municipal employees and healthcare workers.
OTPP holds varying stakes, from 25% to 70%, in the Birmingham, Bristol, London City, Brussels and Copenhagen airports. As the minority shareholders have a 30-day first refusal period to purchase back their stakes, talks with those parties are currently ongoing. Whether or not the other shareholder will decide to buy OTPP parts or to sell up as well, hasn’t been made clear just yet. With a combined value of around £10 billion, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan’s shares alone are worth £3.5 billion.
According to The Sunday Times, the fund has already started talking to outside parties about their interest in buying its shares. One of those is Australian investor Macquarie, which, according to The Times, has made a “take it or leave it” bid for all five airports. A rumour on which neither OTPP nor Macquarie have commented.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that the Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports (AGS Airports) are also being sold, to be acquired by the Canadian-owned and German-headquartered airport management firm AviAlliance for €1.8 billion. The airports had previously been jointly owned by Spanish infrastructure multinational Ferrovial and Australian financier Macquarie.
Moreover, Spanish investor Ferrovial also agreed to sell most of its stake in the London Heathrow airport to a Saudi-French consortium for £3.3 billion. Edinburgh Airport already exchanged hands in June, when French airport operator Vinci acquired a majority (50.01%) stake. Another UK airport, Gloucestershire Airport, is still up for sale at the moment and should be able to bring in £25 million.
