Empresas ICA has sold 2.9% of its shareholdings in Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, known as OMA.

Specifically, Aeroinvest, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICA, sold 11,581,300 OMA Series B shares on August 6, at a price of Ps. 83.50 per share.  The closing price of OMA Series B shares on the Mexican Stock Exchange on August 6 was 83.62.  After this transaction, ICA holds directly and indirectly 33.35% of OMA, and exercises control through its 74.5% ownership of SETA, which holds all OMA's Series BB shares.

According to the company, the proceeds will be used to pay debt. The deal is the the second asset sale in a month to go awry for ICA, whose rating was reduced by Moody's and Standard & Poor's last May. The other deal was the sale of its minority stake in a Mexican tollway operator to majority owner Goldman Sachs.

OMA, operates 13 international airports in nine states of central and northern Mexico. OMA's airports serve Monterrey, Mexico's third largest metropolitan area, the tourist destinations of Acapulco, Mazatlán, and Zihuatanejo, and nine other regional centers and border cities.

OMA's strategic shareholder members are ICA, Mexico's largest engineering, procurement, and construction company, and Aéroports de Paris Management, subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris, the second largest European airports operator.

OMA is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange (OMA) and on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (OMAB).