Flights Direct

The Airport hotel group Arora is about to buy a new portfolio of commercial properties from the UK airport operator BAA for £265 million.

Arora hotels was started by the hotel tycoon Surinder Arora, who arrived in the UK at the age of 13, and began his working life a customer service agent for British Airways.

In 2006 alone, Arora bought nine airport hotels from BAA in a exchange worth around £300 million. Arora Holdings is now thought to be the largest family-owned hotel group within the UK, and they are in the process of building a hotel for Heathrow’s new terminal 5.

BAA’s own properties include airport offices and warehouses, was last year valued at £1.1 billion last year. The down-side to these financial markets is that they have been hit just as hard as house prices, which has made it difficult for BAA to find a buyer.

Arora is now buying 33 of the 58 property sites that are owned by Airport Property Partnership (APP), which is the process of a joint cohesion between BAA and Morley Fund Management. The majority of these properties are within Heathrow Airport.

BAA is continually looking for buyers for its airport properties, which mostly consists of industrial buildings such as land and warehouses. This is in an attempt by BAA to gain more money from its airports, as they struggle for cash. Earlier this month BAA sold over is World Duty Free shops to the Italian group Autogrill for £546 million.