Commercial advisory support for sale of London Stansted airport

Formerly part of BAA’s group of seven airports in the UK, Stansted Airport was sold in 2012, following on from the earlier sale of London Gatwick. As one of the largest airports in the UK the sale of the airport attracted a large number of leading international bidders, including investment funds and other airport groups.

We acted as traffic, commercial and technical advisor to the client, providing an extensive suite of vendor due diligence materials that were made available to bidders.

Our scope of work included:

• development of an extensive suite of long-term annual and secondary air traffic forecasts (passengers, movements, cargo);
• analysis of the arrangements for the setting of aeronautical charges at Stansted
• assessment of the airport’s long-term capital investment requirements
• development of a long-term business plan including aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues and operating costs, complemented by the creation of a detailed operating model.

The airport was sold to Manchester Airports Group (‘MAG)’ in a deal worth circa £1.5 billion.