BELGRADE (Serbia), December 27 (SeeNews) – Serbia's government said it extended to December 29 the deadline for making a decision on the best bidder in its tender for awarding a 25-year concession contract to operate Serbia's Belgrade Nikola Tesla international airport.
The notification of the extension of the deadline in the procedure was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia on December 24, the government said in a public notice posted on the website of airport operator Aerodrom Nikola Tesla [BEL:AERO] earlier this week. The extension is needed because 24th and 25th of December (Christmas Eve and Christmas) are public holidays in the jurisdictions where some of the bidders are based, the government added.
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Four investors have submitted binding bids in the tender within the deadline set on December 8 - three consortia and French company Vinci Airports.
The three consortia comprise respectively: France's Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments, Switzerland's Zurich Airport AG and France's Eiffage; India's GMR Infrastructure Limited and Greece's Terna; South Korea's Incheon International Airport Corporation, Turkey's Yatirimlar ve isletme and Russia's VTB Capital Infrastructure, according to the public notice.
Earlier this month, Serbia's prime minister Ana Brnabic said the government will make a preliminary decision on the best binding bids by December 25, while the winner in the tender should pay between 350 million euro ($416 million) and 450 million euro to the Serbian state immediately.
The Serbian government owns 83.1% of Aerodrom Nikola Tesla, the operator of Belgrade airport. The company's net profit dropped to 3.2 billion dinars ($32.1 milion/27 million euro) in 2016, from 3.3 billion dinars in the previous year.
($ = 0.841333 euro)