Paris airport operator in €1.4b float

Aeroports de Paris, the state-owned operator of France's biggest airports, will sell as much as €1.4 billion ($2.8 billion) of shares in an initial public offering to build terminals and raise money for the Government.

The sale, France's largest in six months, will comprise €600 million of new shares and as much as €800 million of Government-held stock, the Finance Ministry said yesterday.

The IPO values the manager of Charles de Gaulle and Orly Airports in Paris at about €4.3 billion.

Charles de Gaulle, Europe's second-busiest airport after BAA's Heathrow in London, plans to invest more than €2.7 billion in five years on new facilities, including parking stands for the Airbus A380 jet. Airport refurbishments may help fend off competition from other European airports to provide a hub for connecting flights to the Americas and Asia.

"The share sale will give Aeroports de Paris the means to modernise, improve efficiency and offer better service to customers," the ministry said.

The shares will be priced at between €42 and €48.5 each for institutions and at €41 to €47.5 for individuals, the Government said. Company employees will be offered as much as 10 per cent of the offering at preferential terms, according to French law.

The Government's stake will be cut to between 67.4 per cent and 71.6 per cent, depending on how much stock it offers. Aeroports de Paris expects passenger traffic at its two airports to grow 3.75 per cent from a record 78.7 million people last year.

The sale would be the largest in the nation since Electricite de France raised €7.2 billion in November.

BAA, the world's biggest airport owner, on Tuesday rejected as too low a sweetened £9.73 billion ($28.55 billion) bid from Madrid-based Grupo Ferrovial.

- BLOOMBERG