‘Is nothing sacred …? … not even the BAA?’

Abstract

This paper tells the story of Ferrovial's takeover of BAA as seen from the perspective of a member of Citigroup's Global Banking Infrastructure Team and someone closely involved in the deal. After setting the scene of how and why the bid was conceived and the consortium put together, the paper goes on to describe how the takeover was mounted and succeeded, and the response of the UK aviation regulator. The paper concludes by considering the decision by the UK Office of Fair Trading to launch a market study of UK airports and the future implications this may have for BAA.