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A consortium of bidders led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is close to announcing it will buy London City Airport for more than £2 billion (about $2.8 billion), said people familiar with the matter.
The deal could be announced as early as Friday, the people added. In addition to the Canadian pension fund, the consortium includes: Borealis Infrastructure, as well as Alberta Investment Management Corp., a Canadian fund, and Kuwait Investment Authority’s Wren House Infrastructure Management.
London City Airport, popular with London’s financial community because of its proximity to the heart of the capital, is currently owned by Global Infrastructure Partners. News of the winning bid was first reported by The Financial Times.
The deal comes at a time when Canadians have steadily been buying up assets in London’s commercial-property market. The Canadian firm Brookfield Property Partners LP, along with Qatar’s state investment fund, won a bidding war for Songbird Estates PLC, Canary Wharf’s majority shareholder. Canadian investment firm Ivanhoe Cambridge last year bought the London office building that is home to UBS Group AG. In 2014, the group bought Stonecutter Court, a central London office building.
