Tag: airport manager

Aena Reduces its RE Plan for Barajas & El Prat and Plans to Add 4 Other Airports

9 April 2019 – El Economista

Aena has decided to reduce the surface area to be included in its real estate plan for development at Barajas and El Prat. Following the publication of its strategic plan for 2018-2021, the airport manager has chosen to reduce the amount of land by 73 hectares (or 12%) to 549 hectares. As such, 349 hectares will be developed in Madrid and 200 hectares in Barcelona.

In addition, the company chaired by Maurici Lucena (pictured above) is also considering extending the plan to include four other airports: Valencia, Sevilla, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga, although no final decisions have yet been made.

The real estate plan will be developed in phases and plots of land will be put up for tender in accordance with demand. The first lot will comprise logistics space at Barajas.

Aena also plans to dedicate some of its facilities to solar panels, with the objective of generating 70% of its annual energy consumption through its own photovoltaic plants by 2026.

Original story: El Economista (by África Semprún)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

UBS Reveals Aena’s Plans for the Future

12 March 2018 – Cinco Días

The major privatisation of recent times – albeit partial, given that the State still owns a 51% stake – has been an undisputed success. The Spanish airport manager Aena made its debut on the Spanish stock market on 11 February 2015 at €58 per share with a market capitalisation of €5.8 billion. Since then, its share price has soared by almost 200% and the firm is now worth more than €25 billion (around €170 per share).

In Spain, the group manages 46 airports and 2 heliports; it also participates in the management of 12 airports in Mexico, two in Colombia and one in Jamaica, and it controls 51% of London’s Luton airport. It is the number 1 airport manager in the world handling more than 265 million passengers in 2017.

But Aena considers that there are opportunities that it must take advantage of and to this end, it is analysing the creation of a new company to undertake its mergers and acquisitions. Aena would control the new company, but it would not be the majority shareholder. That has been revealed by UBS in a report following meetings with the directors of Aena.

An analyst from the Swiss bank Cristian Nedelcu said that “the new company will probably be consolidated in the capital”. “We consider this as something positive, given that it limits the cash flow and commitments from Aena [allocated to those purposes]”, he added.

UBS revealed another one of Aena’s plans for the medium term. The constitution of a “similar company to manage the real estate business, with the incorporation of specialist managers”, which would also limit the resources that the company chaired by Jaime García Legaz (pictured above) would have to allocate to the segment.

Both initiatives open the door to an increase in Aena’s dividend. UBS considers that with the real estate company and the subsidiary to undertake corporate operations, the company would have scope to increase the percentage of profit that it allocates to remunerating shareholders (also known as the ‘payout’).

Whilst €1 billion in free cash flow is equivalent to €6.5 per share, which is what it will pay out of the profits for 2017, it remains to be seen what the company will do with the €1.6 billion that UBS expects it to make in 2021. “The decisions will be known in the coming months”, said the financial institution.

Aena is planning to market 2.7 million m2 of land in Madrid and 1.8 million m2 of land in Barcelona, as revealed at the presentation of its results on 28 February. In Madrid, of the 921 hectares analysed, 526 hectares are developable and 369 are marketable, whilst in Barcelona, of the 328 hectares analysed, 226 are developable and 180 are marketable.

The company recorded revenues from the real estate arm of €61.1 million last year, which represented 1.2% of its total turnover of €4.0 billion. The aeronautical business accounted for 61.5%; the commercial business, 34.7%; and the international business, the remaining 2.6%.

The group earned €1.2 billion last year, 5.8% more than in 2016, with an EBITDA of €2.5 billion, up by 9.8%, and a margin of 62.5%, compared with 60.8% in 2016, “due to the maintenance of the efficiency achieved despite the operational tension resulting from the increase in traffic”, explained the firm.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Pablo M. Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aena Plans To Sell Off Land & Move Its HQ To Barajas

21 June 2016 – El Confidencial

(…). Aena has launched an ambitious plan to generate the maximum possible returns from its vast land holdings, above all, those located around the two jewels in the group’s crown: the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez and Barcelona-El Prat aerodromes.

The airport manager, whose main objectives since it debuted on the stock exchange has been to optimise its real estate assets, has decided to split the land auction that it has launched into three batches to obtain the maximum benefit from its wealth: the first is limited to Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez; the second to Barcelona-El Prat airport; and the third comprises all of the strategic and real estate consultancy work.

According to El Confidencial, the only way of participating in the bid is by invitation and to this end, the company led by José Manuel Vargas is now making contact with the best international firms in the sector.

In order to benefit from the extensive plan, the company has also decided to consider transferring its headquarters to the capital’s airport, where Aena has ambitious plans, not only to construct offices and hotels, but also to complete its service offering, with meeting rooms for executives, as well as new hangars and warehouses. (…)

Behind Aena’s plans is the logic that the airport manager is the tenant of the buildings that it currently occupies in the capital and which it would vacate if this operation ends up going ahead: the building on Calle Arturo Soria 109, which houses Aena Desarrollo Internacional, and the property on Peonías 12, in the elitist area of La Piovera.

New times, new businesses

(…). Aena owns 2,000 hectares of land around its aerodromes, land that is concentrated in Madrid (which accounts for 40% of the total or 800 hectares) and Barcelona (18% or 360 hectares). The vast size of this space, together with the hub nature of these two infrastructures, are the two pivots around which the public company is designing its master plan.

On the one hand, it wants to take advantage of the boom in e-commerce and of the growth of companies such as Amazon, to construct and lease warehouses that will become the large storerooms of these types of companies in our country. (…).

On the other hand, Aena also wants to build new hangars for airlines on land closer to the airport terminals, something that it has already done under the terms of the agreement signed with Globalia for its subsidiary Air Europa at Terminal 1.

Finally, the airport manager wants to build hotels, offices and meeting centres in the vicinity of Barajas and El Prat, an initiative aimed at turning the two jewels in its crown into genuine airport cities and meeting points, which will allow executives from all over the world use these two infrastructures as their operational bases. (…)

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake