Telegraph | Money | Sunday business comment

Telegraph | Money | Sunday business comment: "This Spruce Goose is Johnson's albatross
MPs demand inquiry into BAA's future
I hope Alan Johnson, the trade and industry secretary, is enjoying the spring sunshine this weekend because a mighty political problem has landed on his runway.
Rafael del Pino, a courageous Spanish construction baron, is intent on buying BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, which, together, are essential to Britain's place as a global economic hub and are used by nearly 100m people a year.
Yet del Pino is proposing to borrow so much money that it could put at risk vital investment at Heathrow and Stansted.
Indeed, reading the offer document, the del Pino consortium looks a bit like the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' giant flying boat that flew only once, in 1947. In the case of the Spruce Goose, the engines struggled to provide enough lift. And in the case of del Pino's Airport Development & Investment Limited, there is not enough equity.
As a consequence, it is groaning under the weight of its debt - if it succeeded, it could have borrowings of �14bn once BAA's existing debts and extensive investment programme are included.
Yet at the offer price, 810p a share, it will not succeed. BAA's shares closed at 863p on Friday and, in a little-noticed development, Richard Buxton of Schroders, its biggest shareholder, derided Airport Development's offer as 'not a remotely interesting price'. He said BAA was just the sort of share you should be able to hold 'for 25 years'. If del Pino raises his offer to, say, 900p a share, as many think he will, that could mean a further �1bn of debt.
The reason Airport Development is such an unairworthy beast is simple. Rafael del"