According to Wolf Theiss, the Airports Group Europe from Luxembourg — which is owned by the IFM Global Infrastructure Fund — has released a public mandatory offer to buy 20 to 29.9 percent of the nominal capital of the Vienna International Airport.
This acquisition was already approved by the take-over commission. Wolf Theiss is advising the seller, the Vienna International Airport.
The Vienna International Airport’s top shareholders are the City of Vienna and the province of Lower Austria where the hub is located, which each own 20 percent, while an employee trust holds 10 percent.
IFM is a Melbourne-based fund that also owns a stake in London Stansted airport and holdings in airports in Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide, in Australia. The fund plans to offer 80 euros a share, a 30 percent premium over last week’s closing price, for as much as 29.9 percent of the Airport. According to IFM, the deal will only go ahead if IFM gets at least a 20 percent stake.
According to Bloomberg, “airport assets that promise stable returns for decades have been in demand as investors seek gains higher than those currently offered by bond markets and more stable than those from stocks. The past two years have seen some of the biggest deals in the industry, such as multibillion-dollar bids for hubs in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and a future hub to be built in Istanbul.”
IFM announced its interest in acquiring a minority stake of the Vienna International airport four weeks ago, and its offer has been approved by the take-over commission. According to Wolf Theiss, “IFM intends to position itself as a longterm investor and could spend up to EUR 500 million for the shares. Conditions are that the acquisition contains at least a 20 percent stake of the nominal capital that would be approximately 4.2 Million shares and that the competition authorities agree on the deal without any further additional requirements.”
Wolf Theiss’s team is led by Partner Peter Oberlechner and Counsel Hartwig Kienast.
Leave a Reply