Ferrovial Belfast airport valued at 150 mln pounds

MADRID (Reuters) - The chief executive of George Best Belfast City Airport (BCA), owned by Spanish construction company Ferrovial (FER.MC), has valued the airport at around 150 million pounds, Cinco Dias reported on Friday.

Ferrovial is considering the sale of the airport -- not a part Ferrovial's main British airport operating business BAA -- BCA's chief executive, Brian Ambrose, said in a statement on the airport's website on Tuesday. The process of deciding whether to sell could take months, he said.

A Ferrovial spokesman said the figure was a personal opinion and not an official estimate from the company. Brian Ambrose was not contactable at BCA.

Belfast City Airport, named after soccer player George Best who was born near the airport, handles around 2 million passengers every year. It was bought by Ferrovial in 2003.

Ferrovial, which diversified out of a slowing domestic construction market by buying assets such as London Heathrow owner BAA, is selling off businesses including its airport retail chain World Duty Free as it seeks to ease massive debts.

Ferrovial's consolidated debt stood at 29.2 billion euros in March, four times greater than its market capitalisation of 7.1 billion euros at Thursday's closing price.

Its shares slipped 1 percent to 50.45 euros by 9.13 a.m. British time.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Louise Ireland)