ADP to buy Turkish airport operator stake

France’s Aeroports de Paris confirmed on Monday that it would buy a 38 per cent stake in Turkish airports operator TAV Havalimanlari Holding for $874 million and said the deal would boost earnings from next year. ADP is paying 11.3 Turkish lira per share, a premium of 32 per cent to TAV’s latest closing price, in a deal that values all of TAV’s equity at $2.3 billion, the French airport group said in a statement. “This changes our size, bringing to 37 the number of airports in our portfolio, not counting Amsterdam, representing 180 million passengers,” ADP Chief Executive Pierre Graff said in an interview. “This puts us in the top two or three (airport operators) in the world.” TAV minority shareholders do not stand to benefit from the substantial premium in the deal. TAV CEO Sani Sener said he did not expect a mandatory tender offer for minorities shares. ADP, which also recently won a concession to run and extend Zagreb’s airports, said it expected to achieve double-digit returns on equity from the deal, adding that it would add to earnings per share as of next year.