BAA sale of Gatwick 'is due soon'

Gatwick is worth about £1.8bn, regulators have said

The sale of Gatwick Airport by BAA is due to happen soon, the airport operator's parent company has said.

Spain's Ferrovial said it was in talks with more than one bidder for the airport which BAA has been ordered to sell by the UK Competition Commission.

Gatwick, the UK's second busiest airport, is expected to sell for up to 1,8bn euros (£1.6bn; $2.7bn).

BAA refused to comment on reports that the sale was due to be announced as soon as Wednesday.

The Financial Times said that Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which already owns London City Airport, was to buy Gatwick for £1.5bn. GIP told the BBC it had no comment to make.

A rival consortium which includes Manchester Airports Group and Canadian investors Borealis is also thought to be vying for Gatwick.

"We're in advanced talks with more than one interested party and if things pan out as hoped we expect a sale in the next few weeks," Ferrovial chairman Rafael del Pino said after the firm's shareholders meeting on Tuesday.

Recession impact

This week BAA has begun an appeal against an order to sell three of the seven UK airports it runs - Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh or Glasgow - within two years.

BAA will argue there was an "apparent bias" due to a link between a member of the ruling panel and an organisation interested in buying the airports.

As well as arguing the commission had a conflict of interest, BAA will also say the commission did not properly take into account the effect the recession would have on the airports' sales.

At the start of this year BAA said its annual profits had fallen by 18.4% as the economic downturn dented passenger numbers.

It reported a profit of £582m before tax and interest, down from £713m in 2007, as the number of travellers going through its UK airports fell by 2.7%.

BAA was bought by Ferrovial for more than £10bn in 2006.