April 13 (SeeNews) - Financial services group China Everbright has started talks for the acquisition of Tirana International Airport (TIA), operator of Albania's only operational airport, local business magazine Monitor reported on Wednesday.
The information was confirmed for Monitor by TIA's CEO Rolf Castro-Vasquez.
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Two weeks ago, Albanian media reports claimed that the Tirana airport operator had launched takeover negotiations with a Chinese company, but the name of the potential buyer had not been revealed until now.
TIA, which was awarded a 20-year concession to operate the Tirana airport, is owned by three companies - airport investor AviAlliance holds 47% stake in TIA, Deutsche investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), part of German development bank KfW, owns 31.7%, and Albanian-American Enterprise Fund (AAEF), an investment company founded by the US government, holds 21.3%.
At the beginning of April, Albania's government and TIA agreed to scrap an exclusivity clause, making it possible to open more airports to international flights shortly, starting with the Kukes airport. In exchange for the cancellation of the clause, TIA was granted an extension of its concession by two years to April 2027.
The China Everbright Group was founded in 1983 and operates in the sectors of banking, securities, insurance, fund, asset management, futures, and investment management. It is based in Beijing, China.