Moscow’s Sheremetyevo looking for international investor
Russian company TPS Avia, which controls 66% of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, is looking to sell up to 10% of the airport’s shares in 2018, Alexander Ponomarenko, one of the company’s owners and chairman of the board at Sheremetyevo, told Vedomosti daily.
Ponomarenko explained that Sheremetyevo is looking to attract a strategic international investor, such as Germany’s Fraport or Singapore’s Changi. Both entities currently hold shares in other Russian airports: Fraport owns 25% in Northern Capital Gateway, the managing company of St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo, and Changi has 30% in the airport holding company Basel Aero.
Although the value of Sheremetyevo’s assets has yet to be assessed, industry experts estimate the cost of a 10% share at $300-350 million, saying that a potential investor would not be difficult to find, Vedomosti reports. Major international holdings, including several Chinese investors, are likely to express their interest.
According to Ponomarenko, the move is aimed at making Sheremetyevo “more intelligible” to international airlines in terms of its potential for transit traffic between Europe and Southeast Asia. The deal is expected to be closed this year. The selected strategic investor’s representative will become a member of the board.
Sheremetyevo served 40 million passengers last year, making it the largest airports in Russia and the fastest growing one on Europe’s top-10 list. The airport had its assets consolidated within the management company in 2017, including the cargo complex, the new terminal, and the companies involved in construction, refueling, and other business activities.
TPS Avia is co-owned by Ponomarenko, Alexander Skorobogatko, and Arkadiy Rotenberg. A total of 30.43% in the Moscow airport is controlled by the state through the Federal Property Management Agency.
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