BAA wins appeal over UK airports sale
Source: Agencies |
December 22, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AIRPORT operator BAA Ltd yesterday won its appeal against a United Kingdom government ruling that it must sell three of its airports, successfully arguing that a conflict of interest had biased the investigation into its business.
Britain's Competition Commission ruled in March that BAA, which had a monopoly on London's main airports, should sell off three of the seven facilities it owns across Britain, including London's Gatwick and Stansted. But BAA argued that one of the members of the commission had been biased by virtue of his work for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, which is linked to the Manchester Airport Group - a potential buyer for the airports BAA would have to get rid of.
Yesterday, the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London backed BAA's claim and overturned the ruling, saying "a fair-minded and informed observer would conclude that there was a real possibility of bias affecting the deliberations, thinking and ultimate outcome of the investigation."
BAA has already agreed to sell Gatwick airport to Global Infrastructure Partners, a United States-based private investment fund, for 1.5 billion pounds (US$2.4 billion). It was not immediately clear what impact if any the ruling would have on the sale.
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