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published OCTOBER 23, 2009

Freshfields advises BAA on sale of Gatwick Airport

International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised BAA Airports Limited on the sale of its 100% interest in Gatwick Airport Limited to an entity controlled by Global Infrastructure Partners for £1.51 billion. Of the sale price, £55 million is conditional on future traffic performance and the buyer’s future capital structure. Proceeds will be used primarily to repay part of BAA’s existing debt. BAA announced its plans to sell Gatwick in September 2008, before the end of the Competition Commission’s UK airports market investigation. The sale is subject to EU merger regulation clearance, among other things, and completion is scheduled for December 2009. Freshfields worked closely on the transaction with Ferrovial Aeropuertos general counsel Juan Bullon and BAA general counsel Carol Hui. The Freshfields team was led by corporate partner Laurie McFadden and associate Amy Beckingham, working with fellow corporate associates Rós Ní Dhubháin, Eliza Coleman, Freddie New, Leigh Devenney and Kate Fry and trainee solicitors Helen Gilbey, Caitriona Capp, Jon Scurr, Richard Johnson and Leo Fielding. Others involved included partners Marcus Mackenzie and Edward Evans, senior associates Max Cairnduff and Rita Garcia-Bennett, and associates Anna Robinson, Francis Clay, Louise Allworthy and Catherine Park (all finance); partner Richard Lister, senior associates Lindsey Canning and Andrew Craig, and associates Laurence Kalman, Hannah McCann, Kathryn Wynn, Patrick Atkinson and Kat Westall (all IP/IT); partner Sarah Falk and associate Peter Clements (both tax); partners Daniel Schaffer and Kathleen Healy, senior associate Harriet Maurice-Williams and associate Larissa Howard (all employment, pensions and benefits); partners David Aitman and Alan Ryan and principal associate Rafique Bachour (all antitrust, competition and trade); and environmental counsel Daniel Lawrence. A Freshfields team, led by David Aitman and Paul Lomas, is also currently advising BAA on its appeal of the Competition Commission's market investigation into airport services, and in particular on the substantive grounds for its appeal. The appeal is in hearing in the Competition Appeal Tribunal this week.