Ferrovial shares bounce

By Sonya Dowsett

MADRID (Reuters) - Shares in Spanish construction and airports group Ferrovial rose as much as 4 percent on Wednesday, as investors welcomed reassurance from the company that a massive debt refinancing is on track.

The much-delayed 10 billion pounds deal was making good progress, Ferrovial's Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Villen told reporters during a conference call to mark first-quarter results after the market closed on Tuesday.

The group hopes to close the refinancing, which will use revenue from its British airport operator BAA as collateral, early in the third quarter.

"Ferrovial's CFO ... made it very clear that the refinancing is moving ahead," said Exane BNP Paribas analyst Steven Fernandez.

Shares in Ferrovial, which owns seven UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted via BAA, rose as much as 4.4 percent. At 12:46 p.m. British time, they were up 2.5 percent at 53.75 euros with more than half the average daily volume traded.

The stock was punished on Friday when BAA said challenging market conditions may delay the company talking to existing bondholders about moving their debt into the new structure.

But Villen's reassurances the refinancing was progressing smoothly, coupled with a detailed progress report of operations at BAA, helped to ease investor confidence.

"The company raised the transparency bar again," said Luis Prieto at Merrill Lynch.