BAA's shareholders agree funding

BAA is under pressure to sell one of its seven UK airports

Airport operator BAA's shareholders have agreed to give it �400m ($779m) as it struggles to refinance its debt.

Spain's Ferrovial borrowed heavily to fund its �10bn purchase of Heathrow and Edinburgh airport owner BAA in 2006.

But the credit crisis has meant bank loans have become more expensive, while refinancing debt has become trickier.

BAA is in the process of trying to renegotiate its debt, but is also under pressure to sell one or more of its airports to boost competition.

A Competition Commission report into BAA published last month said the firm "dominates the airports markets in the south-east of England and in lowland Scotland".

The firm owns Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports.

Debt burden

A sale of one of its valuable airports assets would, "kill two birds with one stone", according to Simon Denham, managing director at Capital Spreads.

"It would get the Competition Commission off their backs, and help them to quickly get rid of their debt, which is getting increasingly expensive to service."

In March, BAA raised �265m from the sale of 33 properties owned in a joint venture with Morley Fund Management.

In the same month it sold its World Duty Free (WDF) shops to Italy's Autogrill for �546.6m.

BAA said so far it lacked "sufficient commitments" from banks for its refinancing plans, which have been thrown into disarray by "continuing challenging market conditions".

The update on its funding difficulties came after BAA and British Airways named 5 June as the date for the delayed first phase of transferring BA's long-haul flights from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Terminal 5.

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