Rigby Group, the conglomerate headed by multi-millionaire Sir Peter Rigby, snapped up Bournemouth Airport for a bargain £39 million, it can be revealed.

The Warwickshire-based company, which has six divisions and combined revenue of £2.77 billion, acquired the airport from Manchester Airports Group (MAG) in December 2017.

The amount paid has never been publicised but accounts filed with Companies House show Rigby Group acquired the whole of the issued share capital of Bournemouth International Airport, and its subsidiaries, for a total of £39,031,000.

Part of the purchase price – £6m – was deferred and is payable in December 2020. The discounted value as at March 31 this year was calculated at £5,574,000.

The airport acquisition included the adjacent 200-acre aviation business park.

Rigby Real Estate (RRE), Rigby Group’s commercial real estate business, now operates a £75m property portfolio at Bournemouth, including approximately £42m related to airport property.

Annual rental income across the airports and RRE portfolio at Bournemouth increased to £5.2m in the year to March 31, according to Rigby Group’s latest accounts.

Rigby Group as a whole saw its pre-tax profits rise to £38.4m (2018: £24.2m) on turnover up 17 per cent to £2.77bn.

The company, founded 44 years ago, has interests in technology, airports, real estate, financial services, hotels and aviation.

Rigby Group’s airports division – Regional & City Airports – owns and operates Bournemouth, Coventry, Exeter and Norwich Airports and holds management contracts for Blackpool, City of Derry and Solent Airports.

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Sir Peter Rigby is one of the UK’s richest businessmen. This year’s Sunday Times Rich List calculated his wealth at £660m, up £35m on the previous year.