Money worries hit BAA plan

The refinancing of the BAA London airport monopoly remains uncertain after banks were called in to provide loans in an attempt to shore up a £10 billion debt restructuring.

Ferrovial, the Spanish owner of the Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports group, said today that it had received backing from nine banks to provide loans totalling £7.65 billion as the group works toward the £10 billion refinancing.

The company admitted the long-awaited restructuring probably would not be completed until later in the summer, two years after the controversial acquisition of BAA during which the refinancing has been delayed because of the global credit crisis.

The refinancing has also been dogged in recent days by junior creditors demanding more say in the restructuring.

The move by such creditors, typically hedge funds and so-called vulture funds that bought BAA debt in the hope of turning a profit, has echoes of the tactics used in the much-delayed rescue restructuring of the Channel tunnel group Eurotunnel.