ABSTRACT
In July 1985 the British Airports Authority (BAA) initiated a study on all of the options for organisational change in anticipation of privatisation. The process of privatisation may be spread over a very long period, which can create problems, even though the ‘fair weather’ critical path would be much shorter. The general structure of this flotation was different from the public sales of government-held shares. The BAA privatisation could have been seen as as time for experimentation – the combined fixed price/tender offer was indeed an innovation, and the share number/price decisions were also a departure from previous practice. Airport privatisation is likely to pose particular problems for most governments. The process of privatisation may be spread over a very long period even though the ‘fair weather’ critical path would be much shorter. In 1982 Associated British Ports Holdings public limited companies was set up, and its shares were subsequently sold to the public.
