BAA, the airports operator, hopes to begin the refinancing of its massive debt within the next couple of weeks when it syndicates a £1.2 billion loan.

The loan will be secured against revenue from BAA's regional airports, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. This element of BAA's refinancing is being arranged by Macquarie, and the Australian bank is understood to be close to finalising the deal.

Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure company that bought BAA two years ago, is under pressure to cut the £10 billion debt it took on to buy the airports operator. Its interest payments have nearly doubled to €1.9 billion (£1.5 billion) a year and the company is seeking better terms. If BAA fails to refinance by the end of June the credit agencies have told the company that they will downgrade its debt rating, possibly to junk status. Such a move would make it much more expensive to borrow money, and analysts have given warning that this could lead to the company running out of money or being forced to sell one of its airports.

There are understood to be three elements to BAA's refinancing package, and banks are working to complete them all in the next couple of months. The largest part is a £5 billion-plus bond that will be secured against the revenues of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. A further £3 billion loan will also be syndicated.

The bond is expected to be finalised by the end of this month and the loan in May. However, BAA is thought to have been unable to secure refinancing at the rate it was initially seeking. Reports yesterday suggested that the interest rate would be 1.5 percentage points above the bank lending rate, compared with BAA's present rate of 2.25 per cent. BAA declined to comment.

Steven Fernández, an Exane BNP Paribas analyst, said: “The market conditions have changed the interest spread and the rate has increased.”


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