Global Airport Finance and Privatisation: CAPA Review 2014. The big funds dominate transactions

CAPA'S Airport Finance and Privatisation 2013 report referred to a reduction in airport M&A transactions and particularly those involving secondary and tertiary level airports.

That trend has broadly continued into 2014. But this past year was also notable for the arrival or approach of a number of significant deals on the world stage involving mainly primary airports. In a handful of cases large tranches of regional airports.

The financing of airports is increasingly dominated by huge international funds. There is still great diversity amongst investors and operators but there is a constant shift towards funds - infrastructure; pension; sovereign wealth; and hedge funds and private equity, globally. Also there is an increasing propensity for strategic investors increasingly to invest in infrastructure assets in emerging markets where growth forecasts are significantly above the mature markets in Western Europe and North America.

This summary report outlines the main developments by region and by country.