Abu Dhabi fund buys stake in London Gatwick Airport

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority said it bought a stake in London's Gatwick Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners, the second transaction involving the U.K. terminal in a week.

The authority, one of the world's biggest sovereign-wealth funds, owns a minority holding in Gatwick, a spokesman for the authority said by phone today, declining to specify details. New York-based private-equity firm GIP will retain controlling ownership of Gatwick, a spokesman for the U.S. company said by telephone yesterday, declining to provide sale terms including the size of Abu Dhabi's stake.

Spanish builder Grupo Ferrovial SA's BAA unit sold Gatwick, the world's busiest single-runway airport, to GIP in December for 1.51 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) under pressure from U.K. antitrust regulators. Abu Dhabi is buying a 15 percent stake valued at about 125 million pounds, the London-based Times reported, without attribution. GIP agreed on Feb. 2 to sell 12 percent of Gatwick to the National Pension Service, South Korea's biggest investor, for 180 billion won ($154 million).

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, set up by the Persian Gulf emirate in 1976, "does not seek active management" when it invests in companies, according to its Web site. The fund's holdings include a 10.9 percent stake in Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. acquired in November.

GIP welcomes the Abu Dhabi fund "as a long-term investor," the U.S. firm's spokesman said.

Passenger numbers at Gatwick, the U.K.'s second-busiest airport after BAA's London Heathrow, increased for a third consecutive month in December, helping reduce the full-year decline to 5.3 percent. Located 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of London, Gatwick attracted 32.4 million passengers in 2009.

GIP, backed by Credit Suisse Group AG and General Electric Co., also owns London City Airport.