SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 17 (Sofia) - Bulgaria's transport ministry has picked a consortium comprising the operator of Munich Airport and French investment firm Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments as winner in the tender for awarding a 35-year concession contract to run Sofia Airport, local media reported on Wednesday.
The French-German consortium SofConnect led by Meridiam was ranked first with 86.12 points, public radio BNR reported.
A consortium comprising France's Aeroports de Paris (ADP) and its Turkey-headquartered unit TAV Havalimanlari Holding was ranked second with 80.31 points, while Fraport Bulgaria, the local unit of Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide came in close third with 80.19 points.
The contract with the winner can be signed within a 15-day period if no complaints against the choice of the transport ministries are lodged. The transport ministry's decision can be appealed within 10 days before the country's competition authority and then before the Supreme Administrative Court.
"The court's decision will be final within a month after Commission for Protection of Competition comes up with its ruling," BNR quoted transport minister Rossen Zheliazkov as saying.
The winning consortium has offered to pay a concession fee of 24.5 million euro ($27.5 million) per year for the duration of the contract and invest 608 million euro in Sofia Airport.
The ADP-led consortium has offered to pay the highest concession fee of some 32.8 million euro ($36.8 million) per year and invest 903 million euro. Fraport Bulgaria offered a 21 million euro annual concession fee and 615 million euro of investments.
Two other bids were also submitted in the tender: by a consortium led by Swiss-based SSB Sauerwein & Schaefer Bau with Copenhagen Airports A/S as airport operator, and a consortium comprising Britain's Manchester Airport Group Overseas Investments Limited and British-registered BCEGI Construction, a wholly-owned unit of China's Beijing Construction Engineering Group.
($ = 0.89149 euro)