Big blow for Ardian. The French investment fund chaired by Dominique Senequier and the Saudi public investment fund (FIP) will buy the remaining 25% that Ferrovial holds in London-Heathrow airport. In detail, Ardian will buy 15% of FGP Topco, parent company of London airport and FIP 10%. All for a total amount of 2.7 billion euros.
Suez-Veolia: who is Ardian, the fund headed by the powerful Dominique Senequier
Ferrovial intends to remain in the airport sector
This operation, which however remains subject to the green light from the stock market authorities, puts an end to 17 years of joint adventure for FGP Topco and Ferrovial, which acquired a stake in the company managing Heathrow airport during an offer public purchase in 2006. Ferrovial, present in construction, real estate and infrastructure management, originally held 56% of Heathrow, but had already reduced its stake several times in recent years. In 2012, the Spanish construction group sold a 10.62% share to Qatar Holding for 607 million euros, then a second 5.72% to the Chinese CIC International for 319.3 million euros. This new sale marks the end of its participation in London Heathrow, one of the largest European airports, but Ferrovial assures that it will remain in the airport sector. The group still holds a 50% stake in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports in the United Kingdom, as well as a 60% stake in Dalaman airport in Turkey and a 49% stake in the new terminal 1 of JFK airport in New York.
Ardian manages over $155 billion in assets globally
The sale announced by Ferrovial allows the Saudi fund FIP to take a further step in European strategic infrastructure. It also allows Ardian to expand its extensive portfolio of assets. The largest French investment fund, created in 1996, has continued to grow in recent years in a very competitive market. It now manages more than $155 billion in assets worldwide for some 1,470 clients, particularly in the United States.
“ In Europe, we play in the same league as the very large investment companies and we are ahead of them”underlined the president and founder of Ardian Dominique Senequier, in an interview given to AFP last June.
“ In the United States, it is not necessarily a handicap to be European. First, our competitors are larger in volume and can buy companies that are much larger than us. We are not competitors, but complementary. Concerning smaller companies, between one and three billion dollars [de valorisation]our approach is interesting because these American entrepreneurs are quite happy to work with us, and that we explain to them the cultural differences with Europe which they sometimes understand less well”, she had explained.
It also highlighted the rise in power of investors from the Middle East “which represent for us 25 billion of the 150 billion euros that we manage”. Ardian opened an office at the start of the year in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, its first in the Middle East.
Ardian has strengthened its governance to support its strong growth
To accompany this “context of strong growth and development of new expertise around the world », Ardian strengthened its governance in mid-September, with the creation of a general director position and three deputy general director positions around the president, aged 70. Dominique Senequier has until now relied on an executive committee (Comex) made up of seven people.
General management is ensured by Mark Benedetti. Three general managers have also been appointed, Mathias Burghardt, Vladimir Colas and Jan Philipp Schmitz, while Nicolo Saidelli has been appointed advisor to Dominique Senequier for strategy and acquisitions. All four were already part of the Comex. The discreet but powerful boss – ranked 88th in the Forbes 2022 ranking of the most influential women in the world – also told AFP “ wish to stay as long as[elle est] in good health, while being less and less involved in daily life of course “. The transition to a successor – “ necessarily internally ” – will be ” progressive “, she assured.
(With AFP)
