Industry Funds Management (IFM) has finalised the purchase of a 35.5 per cent stake in Manchester Airports Group (M.A.G.), one of the UK's largest airport operators.
The deal is the result of almost 18 months of work according to IFM, and included partnering on the acquisition of Stansted Airport, which was finalised last week.
M.A.G. will take over the management of Stansted Airport at the end of April, and also operates Manchester, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports.
IFM said M.A.G. had an integration process in place to ensure transition of ownership and operations was successful and it was business as usual throughout the transfer.
IFM global head of infrastructure Kyle Mangini said M.A.G. had an excellent track record of successful airport management. He said IFM's stake in M.A.G. furthered its strategy of investing in high quality, core infrastructure assets.
In 2011, the Centre for Aviation reported that M.A.G. was Britain's largest UK-owned airport operator and was making a comeback following four years of declining revenue.
It was benefitting from cost control measures and an increase in commercial (non-aero) revenues, while traffic trends had also picked up over the year.
A reduction in passenger numbers had complicated acquisitions at that time and it had a long way to go to before it reached its 2007 highs, the Centre for Aviation said.
Following the sale of Stansted to M.A.G, Ryanair, a low-cost European airline announced it would reduce its Stansted traffic by 9 per cent over the coming year, in response to a fee hike by prior owners Ferrovial/Baa of 6 per cent to come into effect in April. Ryanair had previously planned to increase traffic by 5 per cent in 2013.
IFM is the largest investor in Australian airports with equity interests in the airports of five major capital cities, it said.
