"Discussions are under way, and due diligence has commenced with a view to forming a 50/50 joint venture with an external investor to hold certain of BAA's non-core aeronautical properties," the statement said. BAA officials have yet to decide which properties to put in the joint venture but the combined value is expected to run to hundreds of millions of pounds.
The joint venture will redevelop many of these properties and sell them on. BAA Lynton, the group's commercial property development subsidiary, reported a net asset value of euro 328 million ($430 million) in its reports published in March of last year. But BAA also has other properties that are "invisible" in its annual report but which could present opportunities for redevelopment.
The company's ongoing property ventures include a 600-bedroom, four-star hotel being built as part of Heathrow's Terminal 5 complex. It has also developed a 364-bed, three-star Jurys Inn Hotel in Hatton Cross, Heathrow, which will open early this year. Other hotel interests include a 500-bed hotel and a forthcoming Holiday Inn Budget Hotel, both at Stansted airport.
BAA Lynton also has numerous office, warehouse and business-park properties including a proposed seven-million-sf distribution warehousing hub at a former RAF base at Alconbury, Cambridgeshire, which is a joint venture with Prologis Developments.
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