privatisation
The latest political obstacle to privatisation was overcome last week when Bradford Council voted to ratify a decision made by the Executive Board in March to allow Bradford's 40% shareholding in the airport to be offered for sale. With Leeds and 3 other minority shareholders having already voted in favour selling their shares, the process can now move on to the next phase. As it stands, Leeds City Council will manage the disposal process on behalf of all 5 local authorities and they will appoint financial advisors to market the airport and facilitate the tendering process. It is likely there has already been some degree of sounding out potential bidders in advance of this more formal process getting underway so hopefully it will not take too long for potential purchasers to throw their hats into the ring.
As to who that might be, there were something like 30 initial expressions of interest in a 50% stake in NCL back in 2000/2001 when NCL was roughly the same size as LBA is today. On the basis of a potential 100% stake in Leeds and given it is the last airport of its size that will be coming to market directly from the local authorities, there should be a fair degree of interest.
MAG and Peel are likely to be non-starters given the precedent of Macquarie's (joint owner of BRS) bid for EXT being referred to the competition authorities. TBI, Macquarie and Copenhagen Airports all have interests in UK regional airports, none of which serve the Yorkshire & Humberside catchment and it would be surprising if they didn't show an interest. Babcock Plc have recently purchased Alstec, a company who provide baggage and inter- terminal transfers for BAA Heathrow and in the press release Babcock are quoted as saying "Alstec's skills and track record with those of Babcock creates exciting new opportunities in two major growth markets: nuclear decommissioning and airport management". Clearly a very diverse business then, but one would imagine they too will look closely at Leeds if they want to get into airport management. Arguably not the best option for LBA relative to Macquaire, TBI etc given the lack of experience and, more crucially, the lack of any other airports in the Group. Perhaps the biggest commercial vulnerability at LBA is the fact it exists as a stand-alone airport surrounded by airports that are part of larger groups and these groups are getting increasingly good at building relationships with an airline at one airport to attract new services to another. Peel's relationship with EZY / RYR at LPL leading to new services at DSA being a good example.