Bridgepoint Capital, the pan-European buy-out firm, has trebled its money with the sale of its 24% stake in Birmingham International Airport to the Australian Macquarie Airports Group for £84m (€.135m).

Bridgepoint invested alongside Aer Rianta, the Irish state-owned airport operator, in 1997, taking a combined stake of 40% for £42m. Follow-on funding to mop up minority stakes took Bridgepoint's investment to £31.3m (€50m).