British airport operator BAA said its pretax loss widened in the first nine months of the year after taking a huge hit on the forced sale of Gatwick and falling passenger numbers.
BAA posted a pretax loss of £784.7m in the first nine months of the year, from £519.5m over the same period last year.
BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial, sold Gatwick to Global Infrastructure Partners for £1.51bn, and will use its net proceeds to repay debt. The company, which was pushed to sell the airport by UK antitrust regulators, still controls Heathrow and Stansted.
The pretax loss widened after a exceptional charge of £261m related to an "increased pension scheme deficit," BAA said. The company wrote down another £225m on the shortfall between Gatwick's sale price and its valuation. It was also hit by a £136m loss on financial instruments.
"The accounting losses we are reporting today reflect non-cash exceptional charges and do not reflect the strong underlying performance of the business," said the chief executive, Colin Matthews.
Ferrovial's shares fell 2.1% to €28.10 in Madrid by mid-morning. The company has been struggling with the large amount of debt BAA accumulated when Ferrovial purchased the group. BAA's net debt stood at £9.7bn at the end of September, up from £9.4bn a year earlier.
BAA is appealing a regulator's decision that also forces it to sell Stansted and one of two Scottish airports by spring 2011.
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