BAA refinances £625 million of debt

Published 20th Aug 2010

Airport operator BAA moved a step closer to refinancing its debt by agreeing new lending facilities with a group of eight banks and said it would pay a large chunk of its borrowings next month.

BAA said it completed a 625 million pound four-year debt facility, marking significant progress towards refinancing its subordinated debt of 1.57 billion pounds.

The company, operator of London's Heathrow and Stansted airports, said the refinancing was greater than the 500 million pound initially targeted due to excess demand from banks.

BAA, which is owned by Spanish group Ferrovial (FER1.MC), said it intends to prepay up to 1.1 billion pounds of the debt facility next month, helped by 375 million pounds from its revolving credit facilities and proceeds from the sale of its stake in airport property partnership APP.

The group, which also runs Glasgow, Southampton, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports, plans to refinance the remainder of the debt from a variety of sources, including asset disposals, loans and capital markets issues.

The new facility has a margin of 3.25 percent for the first three years, rising to 3.75 percent in the final year, it said.

Source: ' Reuters '

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