Vancouver Airport Services buys majority stake in Peel Airports

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Peel Airports' Liverpool John Lennon

8:43 am, June 22, 2010
Vancouver Airport Services buys majority stake in Peel Airports

Vancouver Airport Services announced today that it had agreed to buy a 65 per cent stake in Peel Airports.

The Trafford-based Peel Group is retaining 35 per cent of the loss making business, which owns Liverpool John Lennon, Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield and Durham Tees Airport.

The amount VAS paid for the stake was not disclosed in today's announcement.

Crain's reported on February 1 that VAS were in talks with Peel and on May 31 we reported that the deal involved the purchase of a majority stake and that agreement was weeks away.

Peel will also keep a presence on the board and said it looked forward to the opportunities which the "strategic partnership" will create.

George Casey, president and chief executive of VAS, said his group had a "strong track record of investing in and providing value-added management services for airports around the world".

Peel chairman John Whittaker said: "The retention of a significant investment in the joint venture, together with our associated airport-related property, is firmly in line with our strategy of creating long term partnerships to unlock value from the relationship between our diverse infrastructure, transport and real estate assets."

Peel Airports owns Liverpool John Lennon and Robin Hood Airports outright, but local borough councils have a 25 per cent stake in Durham Tees Valley.

VAS, which is jointly owned by Vancouver Airport Authority and Citi Infrastructure Investors. It had revenues of more than CDN$530m in 2009 and it has investments in 19 airports.

A string of Manchester advisers were involved in the deal. Eversheds advised Vancouver Airport with a team led by Daniel Hall (Corporate) and Phillip Tunney (Property) and the firm also advised Barclays Bank with a team led by Nigel Dale.

Deloitte Manchester advised Vancouver Airport with a team led by Richard Bell.

Rothschild's offices in Leeds and Manchester advised Peel with a team let by Stephen Griffiths and Lauren Beggs.

Travers Smith advised Peel with a team led by Richard Skelton and Anthony Foster (Corporate) and Andrew Gregson (Banking).

Amit Rikhy, the head of VAS's team on the deal, said "The Eversheds team, led by Danny Hall, were central to YVRAS' diligence efforts, as well as structuring a partnership with the Peel Group involving complexity of three airports in the north of England.

"We were impressed by the Eversheds team's ability to take a commercial approach and work efficiently to help resolve complex matters. Their client service ethos was superb and flowed through in their work. We look forward to the opportunity to working with Eversheds again."

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