LHR Investment Down, Revenue Up
Alternate Thread Title: Ferrovial Kills Off Heathrow
From a Press review sheet, today;
Investment in Heathrow drops as ailing airport’s revenue soars
The Times, 8 August 2007
Heathrow’s revenue has soared in the airport’s first year under foreign ownership but investment has dropped, despite airline and passenger concern over the poor state of its terminals.
Capital expenditure at Heathrow was £252 million in the year since Ferrovial, the Spanish construction company, bought the airport’s parent, BAA. This is 15 per cent lower than the £298 million BAA spent in its last year as an independent company. The drop in spending on Heathrow’s infrastructure, revealed in group figures released by Ferrovial, has raised concerns about how the Spanish company is managing its £10.3 billion airport division.
One of the concerns raised when Ferrovial acquired BAA last July was that it would take profits but not invest in one of Britain’s most important strategic assets. (Continues)
Pity no-one listened to the concerns. The Government could have stepped in to prevent what the whole industry KNEW would happen. But BAA's Directors had their noses far too far up Blair's willing bottom for that to happen. Ferrovial will exit as soon as the going gets really tough (2012, perhaps?) having maximised the cash they can extract from the company. As forecast.
And they will leave behind an operational and financial disaster area, sold to the highest bidder, no matter who, again without Government intervention. As forecast.