China firm to take Heathrow stake
China’s sovereign wealth fund has announced plans to purchase a stake in the company that owns London’s Heathrow airport.
In a statement released on Thursday, reported by Xinhua, the state-run China Investment Corporation (CIC) said that it would purchase a 10% stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings for GBP450 million (US$723m). The company also controls four other UK airports – London Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The deal marks CIC’s second investment in UK, following its 8.68% stake in London-based Thames Water.
Heathrow is the world’s third busiest airport, handling 69.4 million passenger movements in 2011.