Shareholders of UK airport operator BAA have been forced to pump an emergency £400 million into the airport operator as credit crunch turmoil dashed hopes of re-financing £10 billion of debt by the summer.

In a statement to the stockmarket today, BAA said that it had still not yet finalised aspects of its refinancing plans nor has it managed to convince all its lending banks to transfer £4.7 billion bonds into a new ring-fenced funding structure, backed by its London airports and the Heathrow Express.

So far, only the European Investment Bank has formally announced that it has signed up to the bond transfer.

Shareholders in BAA have had to agreed to inject an emergency £400 million into the owner of seven UK airports which include Heathrow and Gatwick. Ferrovial controls 62 per cent of BAA with the rest shared between French bank Caisse de Depot et Placement de Quebec and Far Eastern sovereign fund, Singapore’s GIC.

Shares in Ferrovial, the Spanish majority owner of the British airport group, fell 4 per cent in Madrid.

BAA also said that it had yet to begin negotiations with holders of BAA bonds, but said that it hoped to do so in the coming weeks through the Association of British Insurers.

However the airport group gave warning that credit market difficulties could compound these plans. "BAA may not ultimately be in such a position [to begin negotiations] owing to continuing challenging market conditions."

The ABI, which represents most of Britain's big pension funds and institutional investors, is to set up a Special Committee and has also been asked by BAA to conduct a bondholder enquiry, to try and establish the identity of BAA bondholders.

"If and when BAA is in a position to commence consultations with bondholders, BAA will make a further announcement," the company said.

A spokesman for BAA said that today's statement was a positive step, as the company was sticking to its original timetable of implementing the refinancing by the end of the second quarter and completing it by the end of the third quarter.

The refinancing problems emerged on the day that the airport operator confirmed that it would finally move British Airways long-haul flights to New York, and seven other destinations, into Terminal 5 in June. The rest of British Airways flights will be moved over the summer, into the autumn.

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