Brussels, 24/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission as approved the acquisition of joint control of the UK airport operator BAA plc by a consortium made up of the Spanish company Ferrovial Infrastructuras S.A. (“Ferrovial”), the Canadian institution Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (“Quebec”) and the Singapore investor GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd (“GIC”). BAA is primarily active in airport management both inside and outside the EU. In the UK it operates seven airports (London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen). BAA also hold a stake in Naples airport (Italy) and in Budapest Ferihegy airport (Hungary). Ferrovial has stakes in Belfast City Airport, Sydney Airport, and Antofagasta Airport (Chile). Together with Macquarie Airports (UK), Ferrovial jointly controls Bristol Airport. Additionally, Ferrovial acquired Swissport, an international ground and cargo handling business, last year. Ferrovial and BAA are both present in the market for the provision of airport infrastructure services in the United Kingdom. However, the Commission's investigation clearly indicated that their respective airports do not compete with each other. In particular, the inquiry found that Bristol is not a competitor to BAA's London airports and likewise, Belfast City does not compete with BAA's Scottish airports. Therefore, the proposed transaction would not lead to a horizontal overlap. The Commission also examined the vertical relationship between Ferrovial and BAA since Ferrovial is the owner of a ground-handling company (Swissport) and airport operators charge fees to ground-handling service providers in order to have access to airport facilities, but in the light of UK regulations and market conditions, the Commission concluded that the deal would not give rise to any risk of reducing competition.