IFM Global Infrastructure Fund (IFM GIF) has decided to raise its offer for a non-controlling minority stake of the share capital of Flughafen Wien AG.

The decision involves an offer of €82 a share, which is 2€ more than the previous offer. The price per share represents a premium of 32.9% over the closing share price of October 10, 2014, more than the premium of 29.7% of its last offer.

The firm has also drooped its condition of receiving at least 20 percent of the Flughafen Wien AG. The firm said it has binding commitments for 11.84 % of the share capital.

Werner Kerschl, a director at IFM, reported in a statement:

"We think this step is in the best interest of shareholders primarily because the three-month extended deadline is avoided and the shareholders would get the purchase price significantly sooner."

Flughafen Wien AG, one of the few publicly traded airport operators in Europe, was privatised in 1992. The state of Lower Austria and the City of Vienna each hold 20% of the shares, the private employee participation foundation holds 10%, with the remaining 50% held privately. The shares are part of the Austrian Traded Index.

In mid October we reported that  IFM Investors announced that the IFM Global Infrastructure Fund (IFM GIF) intended to launch a public voluntary offer to acquire a non-controlling minority stake of between 20% and 29.9% of the share capital of Flughafen Wien AG through its indirect subsidiary, Airports Group Europe S.à  r.l..

The vast majority of investors in IFM GIF are institutional pension funds investing on behalf of millions of individual workers, spread over multiple jurisdictions including Australia, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, the United States and Canada. The firm  owns small Australian airports and has also invested in British, German and Polish infrastructure.