Institutional investors deploy globally

Pension plan sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors have been active in global markets of late. London-based Universities Superannuation Scheme’s USS Investment Management Ltd. has acquired an 8.65 percent stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings, owners of Heathrow Airport in London as well as Glasgow and Aberdeen airports (in Scotland) and Southampton airport (in southern England). In the first six months of 2013, those airports handled 40.2 million passengers.

USS paid Madrid-based Ferrovial $634 million for its HAH interest, leaving Ferrovial with a remaining 25 percent stake. In June 2006, a consortium including Ferrovial acquired BAA Ltd., and later renamed it Heathrow Airport Holdings.

“We are pleased with the addition of a British pension fund to the group of international investors who are already part of Heathrow,” says Íñigo Meirás, CEO of Ferrovial. “Heathrow now has investors based