Spain's state-owned airport operator AENA appoints banks for IPO

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's state-owned AENA has appointed banks Santander, BBVA, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to run its stock market offering, a spokeswoman for the airport operator said on Tuesday.

Spain is selling about 49 percent of heavily indebted AENA, the world's biggest airports operator, which the government says is valued at around 16 billion euros (13 billion pounds). The government has said the aim of the sale is to make management of the company more efficient and attract more tourist flights.

(Reporting By Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Sarah Morris)