Strong Recovery Expected to Provide Upsides to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Airport Portfolio

Justin Lee

Singapore

April 30, 2023

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The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) Board is an independent organization that responsible for administering defined-benefit pensions for schoolteachers in the province of Ontario in Canada. A partner organization of the World Economic Forum, OTPP also invests the plan's pension fund.

Ontario Airports Investments (OAIL) is a fully owned subsidiary of OTPP that manages and oversees OTPP’s airport investments across Europe. Airports that currently are under active management by the London-based team include Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Copenhagen and London City. OAIL also provides asset management services on behalf of OTPP for their airport investments.

Birmingham & Bristol Airports

In October 2017, OTPP along with Australia's TCorp as well as Sunsuper (now merged with Australian Retirement Trust), announced that they would become investment partners in Bristol Airport and Birmingham Airport, two of the UK's leading regional airports.

Bristol Airport

© Wikimedia Commons

OTPP entered a definitive agreement by which it will sell 30% of its stakes in both Bristol and Birmingham to TCorp as trustee of TCorpIM Direct Investment Fund E and Sunsuper Pty Limited as trustee of Sunsuper. TCorp and Sunsuper would each acquire 15% of OTPP’s stakes in Bristol Airport and Birmingham Airport.  Following completion, OTPP, TCorp and Sunsuper would own 70.0%, 15.0% and 15.0% of Bristol Airport and 33.8%, 7.2% and 7.2% of Birmingham Airport respectively.

Bristol Airport Traffic and Financial Performance (2019-2022)

  2019 2020 2021 2022
Pax (No.) 8.90 2.17 2.06 7.95
Turnover (GBP mn) 116.4 28.2 31.7 N/A
Operating Income (GBP mn) 35.6 -34.5 -25.0 N/A
Net Profit (GBP mn) 28.6 -29.4 -21.0 N/A

                                        @Bristol Airport Limited Financial Accounts

Bristol Airport saw a strong recovery in passenger traffic in 2022. At 7.95 million passengers, Bristol Airport's passenger traffic for the year was 285.5% higher than that generated in 2021, and 89.3% of its 2019 levels before the pandemic.

While Bristol Airport’s financial report for 2022 is not publicly available, it had made operating losses of GBP34.5mn and GBP25mn in 2020 and 2021 due to the downturn in passenger traffic in the pandemic period. Given Bristol Airport’s strong recovery in passenger traffic in the year 2022, Bristol Airport’s financials for the year 2022 are expected to see significant improvement.

Birmingham Airport Traffic and Financial Performance (2019-2022)

  YE 3/2019 YE 3/2020 YE 3/2021 YE 3/2022
Pax (No.) 12.5 12.1 1.0 3.7
Turnover (GBP mn) 160.7 159.6 24.1 67.5
Operating Income (GBP mn) 49.2 45.0 -60.6 -5.7
Net Profit (GBP mn) 35.0 30.5 -57.2 -13.8

                                      @Birmingham Airport Limited Financial Accounts

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