Abu Dhabi Investment Authority acquires stake in Gatwick

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is to buy a 15 percent stake in Gatwick Airport for £125 million (US$195 million). The purchase by ADIA, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, comes in the same week as South Korea’s National Pension Service bought a 12 percent stake in the airport for £100 million (US$156 million).

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the infrastructure fund set up by Credit Suisse and GE, bought Gatwick last year for £1.5 billion (US$2.34 million). It has said it is seeking additional investors but will retain management control of the UK’s second largest airport.

ADIA held talks with a number of potential Gatwick buyers during the early part of the sale process but it did not to take part in the eventual auction.

A spokesman for GIP said the group welcomed ADIA as a long-term investor in Gatwick, but declined to say precisely how much ADIA had paid. ADIA is looking to regain ground after suffering big losses on a US$7.5 billion investment in Citigroup, which has seen it file an arbitration claim against the bank. The fund has also suffered losses on private equity investments.

8 February 2010