Aena to float at €58 a share in Spain’s second-biggest IPO

Aena, the Spanish airports operator, will be floated on the Madrid stock market on Wednesday in the biggest initial public offering in Spain since 2007 and the second biggest in the country’s history.

Aena ranks as the biggest airports group in the world by passenger numbers, operating hubs in Madrid and Barcelona along with smaller facilities such as Málaga and Palma de Mallorca. It also operates Luton airport in the UK.

The Spanish government is selling 49 per cent of Aena to the public at €58 a share, which values the group’s equity at €8.7bn.

The final pricing, which is at the very top of the range published last week, was revealed in a statement to the regulator on Tuesday.

Aena said the much-delayed IPO was almost five times oversubscribed, highlighting a recent surge in investor demand for Spanish assets.

The IPO was initially scheduled to proceed last November but had to be pulled at the last minute over fears that Aena’s auditor had not been selected sufficiently rigorously.

The delay has proved highly lucrative for the Spanish government — the original IPO plan envisaged a pricing range of only between €41.50 and €53.30 a share. This range has been lifted twice since, settling last week at €53 to €58.

The rise reflected the improvement in investor sentiment towards Spain but also a strong set of financial results from Aena.

Over the first nine months of last year, the group reported sales of €2.39bn, up 6.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2013. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 15.4 per cent to €1.46bn.

Aena has focused on increasing sales from its retail and commercial activities. Such revenue rose 16 per cent in the first nine months of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013.

The government had initially planned to sell 21 per cent of Aena’s stock to three anchor investors — TCI, a London-based hedge fund, Grupo Alba, a Spanish fund, and Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure group that is the largest shareholder in London’s Heathrow airport.

But the spike in demand for Aena’s stock meant the offer price soared above what the three investors had committed to pay.

According to Aena’s statement on Tuesday, TCI is still hoping to acquire a “significant participation” by way of the normal offer process, but the other two investors have dropped out.