Balfour set to bid for airport stake
Balfour Beatty is on a list of potential bidders for a 24% stake in Britain's fifth-biggest airport, Birmingham International.
The engineering giant, which is already bidding for Leeds-Bradford Airport, is one of a number of companies competing for the Birmingham stake, which is held by Australian bank Macquarie.
Other bidders include Germany's Fraport Group, which owns Frankfurt airport, private equity group Carlyle and investment group Babcock & Brown.
Any buyer of the Macquarie holding, which was bought for £84m in 2001 and is now valued at about £130m, is also likely to buy the 24% stake held by Dublin Airport Authority.
Though the seven West Midlands councils, which own about 49% of Birmingham International Airport, are not on the list of bidders after disagreeing with Macquarie about price, they have the right to match any offer. Almost 3% of the airport's shares are held in an employee trust.
The councils view public ownership of the airport, which handled more than nine million passengers last year on 50 airlines, as vital for the region because it is a major driver of economic growth.
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