China's HNA withdraws from Bulgaria's Plovdiv Airport concession deal - report

The Chinese company will not be able to close its internal approval process on the deal, Capital.bg cited the company's representative Asen Vasilev as saying.

In March, Bulgaria's government authorised the transport ministry to sign a concession contract for Plovdiv Airport with a tie-up comprising HNA Group and local company Plovdiv Airport Invest. The tie-up was selected as the winner of a tender launched in January 2017, which attracted bids from two other consortia.

Under the concession deal, the tender winner had to invest at least 79 million euro ($91.6 million) during the term of the concession, the government said at the time.

In May, the transport ministry said that the Chinese-led consortium intends to invest over 160 million euro in Plovdiv Airport, double the originally envisaged amount. The tie-up's plans for the airport included turning the airport into a transport hub with one passenger and two cargo terminals.

($= 0.862 euro)