Germans circle Luton airport

AIRPORT operator TBI, owner of Luton, was on full bid alert today after German construction giant Hochtief signalled it could be about to launch a takeover.

Shares in TBI soared 9 1/4p, or 15%, to 70 3/4p as the City pinned its hopes on a bid battle that could take the value of the group to more than £600m.

Hochtief AirPort (HTA), a subsidiary of Hochtief and significant minority shareholder in Sydney, Athens, Dusseldorf and Hamburg airports, said in a statement to the Stock Exchange:

'HTA is in the business of examining airport investment opportunities, with partners, on a continuous basis. In this context, it is considering the merits of a potential acquisition of TBI. Any offer would be likely to be solely in cash.'

Hochtief's interest has grown after hearing of TBI's plans for Luton, London's fourth airport. With South East airports constricted by severe congestion, chief executive Keith Brooks recently said Luton had a theoretical capacity of 31m passengers a year. It has a target to grow from its current 7m to 20m in the short to medium term.

Luton had a poor summer after package holiday airline operators cut back, but its performance is underpinned by easyJet, Europe's second-largest budget airline, being based there.

Key to a bid would be French construction rival Vinci, which has a 14.9% stake left over from its abortive takeover bid for TBI in 2001. Vinci is a willing seller, according to City sources, but it bought its shares at 90p apiece.

TBI also owns the fast-growing Cardiff and Belfast International airports and Skavsta near Stockholm. Dealers have reckoned it to be prime takeover material for some time.

Any deal will see massive windfalls for chairman Stan Thomas, his brother Peter and sister Mary Case, who between them own 18% of TBI's shares which at today's price are valued at more than £70m. Irish tycoon and Manchester United partowner Dermot Desmond holds 5%.

Hochtief is best known in the UK for its construction work, especially on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in