“419” not, as a Nigerian, Adebayo Ogunlesi buys Gatwick Airport….

This is good news for Nigeria, good news indeed. Not a “419” deal. Nothing close to it. This was an international transaction, a business deal which a Nigerian led and succeeded.

I can announce to you today, if you haven’t heard already, that anytime you travel through Gatwick Airport, always remember with pride that it is owned by a Nigerian.

Bayo Ogunlesi

The new owner of one of the world’s most recognised airport – Gatwick – is Adebayo Ogunlesi.

Bayo, as he is fondly called, 56, is the chairman and managing partner, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an independent investment fund based in New York City with worldwide stake in infrastructure assets.

According to report, Bayo, the son of an 86-year old professor of medicine has presided over a great number of sweet deals that made him the envy of his peers abroad even if his forays into the brisk world multi-billion dollars deals are barely talked about in Nigeria, his home country.

GIP will be investing through Ivy Bidco Limited, a limited liability company registered in England, established for the purpose of making the acquisition. Bidco will pay cash consideration of £1,455 million for the entire share capital of Gatwick Airport Limited on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

Bayo says the acquisition of Gatwick is a landmark deal for GIP and adds another quality asset to his firm’s rapidly expanding portfolio. He said, “we see significant scope to apply both our strong operational focus and our knowledge of the airports sector to make Gatwick an airport of choice.”

In an exclusive interview on Sky television with Jeff Randall, Bayo Ogunlesi, said he is going “to make Gatwick a truly first class experience”. However he cautioned it would take “somewhere between 12 and 18 months” before passengers started noticing a difference at the airport.
GIP agreed a £1.51bn deal with Gatwick’s current operator BAA last week, which represented a “good price”, Mr Ogunlesi said.

The fund, which invests in the energy, transport and waste sectors, has already spent over £1bn so far this year, encouraged by falling asset prices. Mr Ogunlesi said the UK’s strong regulatory framework and attractive assets made “Britain a wonderful place to invest”.

“We love Britain,” Mr Ogunlesi added.

The sale of Gatwick to GIP, which is subject to approval by the European Union, is due to be completed by the end of the year.

The airport is currently run by BAA, which posted a pre-tax loss of over £780m in the first nine months of the year.

The airport operator said it lost £225m on Gatwick after being forced to sell the airport by the Competition Commission.

So you wondered why Bayo hadn’t brought his skills to play in Nigeria. But did you notice what Bayo said? He said “We love Britain”, not because of anything but the STRONG REGULATORY FRAMEWORK. Period.

Bayo’s Bio

Adebayo Ogunlesi, called ‘Bayo, by family and friends, was born in Nigeria in 1953, the son of the first Nigerian-born professor of medicine to earn tenure at a medical school in his own country. Ogunlesi went to England in the 1970s to study philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with honors. He was accepted by Harvard Law School as one of three foreign students in his class, even though the school did not usually admit students who had been born and educated outside the United States at the time. At Harvard, Ogunlesi and W. Randy Eaddy became the first two editors of African descent to serve together on the prestigious Harvard Law Review .

Ogunlesi also enrolled at the Harvard Business School at the same time that he was studying law. Although he did not intend to pursue a business career, he thought that courses in finance would help him overcome his fear of numbers. He finished his MBA program in 1978 and earned his law degree magna cum laude in 1979. Ogunlesi then served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall from 1980 to 1983. He was the first non-American ever to clerk at the nation’s highest court.

In 1983 Ogunlesi became an associate of the prestigious New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore after having worked for the firm as an intern. He had been practicing law for only nine months, however, when he was called by First Boston, an investment bank. The bank was helping the Nigerian government finance a $6 billion liquefied natural gas project. Its contact in Nigeria was a personal friend of Ogunlesi. The bankers at First Boston asked Cravath, Swaine if they could borrow Ogunlesi for three months to facilitate the deal.

MOVING TO FIRST BOSTON

Three months at the investment bank turned into 20 years. Ogunlesi’s superiors at First Boston were pleased with his work and offered him a permanent position even though his homeland was in turmoil. He told the New York Times on one occasion, & Six months after I got here, there was a coup in Nigeria, the government got tossed out and my friend almost went to jail (March 14, 2002). He rose through the ranks at First Boston from associate to head of the project-finance group. Ogunlesi spent much of his time traveling through countries regarded as emerging markets, where he brokered deals among lenders, governments, and firms developing such large projects as oil refineries, natural gas plants, and mines. The lenders recovered their investments from the proceeds of the projects funded.

Ogunlesi was soon promoted to managing director of the project-finance group at First Boston. Over time his team absorbed several others, including the power, oil and gas, and chemicals groups. In 1993, this amalgamated unit was officially renamed the “Global Energy Group, but was informally dubbed -The Bayosphere. Known for his competitive spirit, Ogunlesi installed a foosball table in his office and had his name painted on one of the goalies; his way of saying that he was taking on the competition.

KEY PROMOTION

In 1997 First Boston was acquired by the Credit Suisse Group and renamed Credit Suisse First Boston, or CSFB. Ogunlesi became the head of the new firm’s global investment banking division in 2002 at the age of 48. At that time global investment banking was one of CSFB’s most influential divisions, employing 1,200 bankers and managing $2.8 billion in assets. Ogunlesi was also given seats on the bank’s board of directors and its powerful 15-member operating committee. The chief executive of CSFB, John J. Mack, praised the new appointee in a press release. ‘Bayo Ogunlesi is a banker of powerful intellect, integrity and innovation. He has a broad global perspective and keen understanding of complex financial transactions. Our clients worldwide have benefited greatly from his strategic insight’s (February 20, 2002). Another colleague put it more simply,He’s the smartest guy in the room ( New York Times , March 14, 2002).

Other accolades quickly followed the news of Ogunlesi’s appointment. Time magazine named Ogunlesi to its 2002 Global Influentials list of the 15 most-promising young executives, while Fortune ranked him as the Seventh Most Powerful Black Executive in the United States.

Ogunlesi’s first task after his promotion was to cut costs in the investment banking division, which had lost nearly $1 billion the previous year. The division was overstaffed as well as ineffective. Ogunlesi furloughed 300 bankers and 50 managing directors in the first few weeks of his new job. He also asked the remaining staff to accept pay cuts and reduce expenses. His economy measures showed some success when the bank’s revenues in the following quarter increased by 25 percent.

NEW CHALLENGES

The early years of the twenty-first century brought more difficult challenges. First, a bear market that started in 2000 made new financing difficult to find. Next, off-balance-sheet financing lost public favor when the energy company Enron abused the technique in order to hide its debts and risky investments, which contributed to its collapse in the winter of 2001. Still another scandal erupted in 2002, when some analysts at CSFB and other large brokerage firms were accused of openly giving some stocks a buy rating while secretly telling their larger clients to steer clear of them. CSFB and nine other firms eventually paid out $1.4 billion in 2003 to settle the charges without admitting guilt. Ogunlesi told New Zealand’s Dominion Post that new rules had been enacted to create a very clear separation between equity market research and investment banking functions. Those rule changes would limit future conflicts of interest and help restore confidence in broker recommendations.

In addition to Ogunlesi’s work at CSFB, he served as cochair of the Global Economic Forum’s 2003 Africa Economic Summit and as an informal adviser to the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. Ogunlesi also raised funds for education and African charities (Black Herald – September 9, 2007)