Li Ka-Shing May Bid for Manchester Airports, Sunday Times Says

Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. (1038), owned by Li Ka-Shing, Asia’s richest man, is interested in buying a stake in Manchester Airports Group, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information.

The owners of Manchester Airports Group, which also operates the East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside sites, want to raise as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.56 billion) to fund a bid for Stansted airport, the newspaper said, and would set up a joint venture with any investor to run the airports. Any investor would get a 35 percent equity stake with 50 percent voting rights in the venture, according to the Sunday Times.

Industry Funds Management Pty. Ltd. is also interested in the stake, the paper said. A joint venture between 3i Infrastructure Plc and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will no longer bid for the stake, the paper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Clementine Fletcher in London cfletcher5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sara Marley at smarley1@bloomberg.net