February 14 (SeeNews) - Serbia's invitation of bids for awarding a 25-year concession on Belgrade airport Nikola Tesla has attracted interest from all major sector players in Europe, a government aide has said.
The capacity of Belgrade airport has reached its limit and the government expects the future concessionaire to invest several hundred millions of euro in the construction of an alternative runway and the upgrade of passenger terminals, Zoran Ilic, an advisor to the minister of infrastructure, said on Monday, according to a news release issued by the government's press office.
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The companies interested in winning the concession contract include Spain's Ferrovial, Germany's Hochtief and Fraport, France's Aeroports de Paris and Dutch-based Schiphol, Ilic said.
Eligible bidders must not hold more than 20% of the concessionaire of an airport which has served more than one million passengers at any point in time over a twelve-month period from January 1, 2016, and which is located within a 450 km radius from Belgrade, according to the terms of the bidding procedure published in the Official Gazette on Friday.
Aeroports de Paris holds a 20.77% stake in the capital of MZLZ, the operator of Croatia's Zagreb airport, located some 380 km from Belgrade airport.
"Fraport is fundamentally interested in expanding its international portfolio through attractive airport privatisations. Therefore, we are continually scanning the global marketplace for new airport projects," the international spokesperson of the company, Robert Payne, told SeeNews in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday, declining to comment on specific plans.
In December, Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said he was convinced that the government could strike a deal for awarding a 25-year concession on Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport as a result of the good job done by flag carrier Air Serbia.
Serbia's infrastructure ministry said in January that Russia's VTB Capital is interested in investing in Nikola Tesla airport. In June, Air Serbia launched a flight connecting Belgrade to Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, operated by an international consortium of VTB Capital, Fraport, and Copelouzos Group.
Approached for comment by SeeNews, Hochtief media relations head Martin Bommersheim also declined to provide specifics, explaining that as a matter of principle the company does not comment on any bidding procedure.
Spanish civil engineering group Actividades de Construcciones y Servicios (ACS) holds a 71.7% stake in the capital of Hochtief, which operates Athens, Dusseldorf, Budapest and Hamburg airports via its subsidiary AviAlliance.
Ferrovial operates Heathrow, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports in the United Kingdom, while Schiphol is the operator of Amsterdam airport in the Netherlands.