BAA released its latest results in London yesterday, a presentation in which it became clear that the March deadline for the launch of the securitisation refinancing of ADI’s acquisition debt is going to pass. The market has been eagerly awaiting the deal, which will be the largest corporate securitisation to date and may even reach £8 billion in size. It was expected to be in the bag by the end of the first quarter this year, but there still seems to be a substantial amount of work to do. Indeed, Ferrovial’s stated aim is only to complete the refinancing sometime during 2007.
Despite the delay in the launch of the deal, the looming threat of a BAA downgrade from S&P [see Euromoney, January 2007] seems to have evaporated. Interviewed by Euromoney in December last year, Standard & Poor’s managing director of infrastructure finance ratings Mike Wilkins commented that: “If the securitization is not completed by the end of Q1 we have the option to downgrade. If we get to the end of March and there are still substantial hurdles to overcome then in those circumstances we would bring the rating down to where it would be absent of the refinancing.
