Vinci approaches funds to bid for Paris airport operator

Construction company Vinci has approached investors to launch a multi-billion-euro bid for part of French airport group Aeroports de Paris (ADP), the largest of President Macron’s planned state sell-offs, four financial sources said.

The deal, among the first of the planned privatisations, would see France give up its stake of 50.63 percent in the group which runs Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports outside Paris and has a market cap of 19.63 billion euros (17.2 billion pounds).

The French government said this week it would prepare the legal ground to sell stakes in some of its corporate assets, including ADP, energy group Engie  and lottery monopoly FDJ.

Two sources said Vinci, which already owns 8 percent of ADP and has publicly expressed interest in a bigger stake, has approached pension funds to become partners, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP).

CPPIB and OMERS declined to comment. Vinci and OTPP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A third source said he expected the sale to be formally launched in the first quarter of 2019, due to the complexity of the structure.

Given the size of the asset, banking sources have speculated that the government’s stake should be broken up into chunks to be sold off separately or be split into different arms.

One of the sources said he expected U.S. and Middle Eastern funds to be preparing bids, possibly forming consortiums.

European airports have been a lucrative business for private equity firms and pension and infrastructure funds over the past few years because they offer strong growth potential from increasing global travel and services such as shops, on-site hotels and car parking.

Investor Macquarie <MQG.AX> is preparing to sell Brussels airport this summer, sources familiar with the situation said.

In Britain, banking sources expect infrastructure fund Global Infrastructure Partners to sell investments in Edinburgh and Gatwick airports in the coming year or two in what could be a test of investor sentiment on the eve of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Source: Reuters

New airport terminal at Honiara International Airport, Solomon Islands

Japan unveiled the plan yesterday in Honiara during the signing of the Grant Agreement for the improvement of the Honiara International Airport project.

The airport upgrading project, which is expected to start early next year, will cost four billion three hundred and sixty-four million Japanese Yen (4,364,000,000) or around SBD$290 million.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chief Representative Takashi Toyama said if construction work starts early next year, it should take around 31 months to complete.

Mr Toyama said this new terminal arrangement is expected to boo

st the convenience of passengers between international and domestic terminal and to contribute to the growth of the tourism industry.

Honiara International Airport formerly known as Henderson Field, is an airport on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands. It is the only international airport in the Solomon Islands and is located 8 kilometers  from the capital Honiara.

New Vietnam international airport to open in December

Located in one of the SEZ areas, Van Don is the first airport in the country built with locally mobilized capital.

The Van Don International Airport in northeast Vietnam, near the famous Ha Long Bay, will open to traffic in December this year, the investor has said.

This is the first airport in the country that has been built with the entire capital of VND7.5 trillion ($330 million) mobilized locally.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Transport had decided that Van Don will be an international airport that will be used for both commercial and military purposes.

The airport aims to accommodate 2-2.5 million passengers annually by 2020, and 5 million by 2030.

By 2020, it is planned that the Van Don airport will have a 3.6 kilometer runway able to host Boeing 777, 787, 747-400, Airbus A350 and other aircraft.

As Van Don District is among the three special economic zones planned in the country, the airport is expected to boost the local economy, including tourism at Ha Long Bay.

The airport is roughly 44 kilometers northeast of the world heritage site in Quang Ninh Province.

Over the past five months, Ha Long has held many events including the launch of the National Tourism Year 2018 – Ha Long – Quang Ninh and Carnival Ha Long 2018 which attracted tens of thousands of visitors.

The bay has helped Quang Ninh welcome 6.6 million visitors as of May 2018, including 2.17 million foreigners, according to official figures. Year-on-year tourism revenues for the period rose 32 percent to reach VND11 trillion ($483,450).

Source: VnExpress

Chile fine-tuning airport development plan

Chile is readying a strategy to expand its airport infrastructure in order to deal with rapidly increasing passenger traffic, a plan that includes renewing the concessions for several airports and modernizing secondary domestic terminals.

During a conference held at the engineers’ guild in Santiago Claudia Carvallo, advisor to the public works ministry’s (MOP) airport division, said the government plans to tender studies to determine the infrastructure shortfalls in the airport network.

The first of the studies will be tendered at the end of this year, and will cover the airports of the central-south zone (Los Ángeles, Chillán, Pucón, Valdivia, Araucanía and Concepción).

«The idea behind these studies is to detect infrastructure deficits for commercial operations, as there aren’t commercial operation at Los Ángeles, Chillán and Pucón, but these are destinations that low cost airlines are interested in,» Carvallo said.

Another part of the plan is the development of airport master plans. The official said that the drawing up of these plans will also be tendered by zones, with the first bidding process starting by year-end.

On concessions, the government is looking to «jumpstart public-private alliances» and that, for the first time in Chile, authorities are mulling tendering concession packages that would include more than one airport, according to Carvallo.

MOP is looking at tendering the concessions for the Carlos Ibáñez del Campo(Magallanes region) and Balmaceda (Aysén region) airports as one contract.

Carvallo unveiled the long-term plan for the airports that currently operate under concessions, with the exception of Calama’s El Loa which was not mentioned:

  • Chacalluta (Arica and Parinacota)

2nd concession to be tendered next month.

Budget: US$99mn

Works under new concession: Expansion of airport to 10,000m2. Expansion of aircraft parking space. Expansion of parking lot. New aeronautic complex. Works expected to begin in 2020.

4th concession awarded last year to APORT

Budget: US$60mn

Works under new concession: Expansion of terminal to 20,000m2. Adding 3,000m2 of aeronautic installations.

  • Andrés Savella airport (Antofagasta)

Expansion of airport runway to be executed by MOP instead of concessionaire.

Concessionaire Aport is developing a real state project in the area of the concession. It entails the construction of several installations to give logistical support to the airport. The works will be financed by the concessionaire in exchange of a «small extension» of its contract, Carvallo said. Installations include a new cargo area and a bus terminal.

Preliminary project for 2nd concession to be tendered at the end of this year. This draft will serve as reference for the upcoming concession tender.

New concession to be tendered next year.

MOP ruled out a project to build a new terminal at Tongoy. Carvallo said «both projects are profitable but [the new La Serena concession] is more profitable.»

Works under new concession: Expansion of erminal to 10,000m2.

Concession awarded in 2015 to consortium Nuevo Pudahuel.

Budget: US$650mn

Works in progress. Construction of new 157,000m2 international passenger terminal. Expansion of existing terminal by 9,000m2. Expandiing parking lot. Addition of five boarding bridges.

Carvallo added that the concession has an «investment trigger» in case of the need for further expansions. To that end, MOP is seeking to expropriate 640ha of land.

2nd concession awarded in 2016 to a consortium made of Icafal Construccionesand Icafal Inversiones.

Budget: US$36mn

Works in progress: Expansion of airport surface area to 12,000m2. Works expected to finish next year.

4th concession awarded in February to a consortium made of Sacyr and Agunsa.

Budget: US$35mn

Works under new concession: increasing the airport surface area to 16,000m2. Adding a new boarding bridge. Adding new positions for planes and expanding parking lots. Works are expected to start next year.

Works outside of concession: New runway. MOP plans to tender the design of the runway this year.

  • Balmaceda (Aysén, currently operated by MOP’s airport division)

1st concession planned to be tendered alongside Carlos Ibañez del Campo airport. Tender planned for April 2019.

Budget: US$87mn

Works: Construction of new terminal. Upgrade of existing terminal.

  • Punta Arenas’ Carlos Ibañez del Campo (Magallanes)

3rd concession planned to be tendered alongside Balmaceda airport in April 2019.

Budget: US$90mn

Works under new concession: Expanding terminal to 15,000m2.

MINOR AIRPORTS

Due to the pressure from low cost airlines, Carvallo said that MOP is also planning to improve the infrastructure of smaller airports.

The ministry is planning to tender studies to expand the airports of Viña del Mar and Easter Island (both in Valparaíso region), with the expansion of the latter estimated to cost 55bn pesos (US$86mn). The MOP official said the plan is still under evaluation, as it would demand resources from other ministries.

In the Santiago area, Carvallo said the ongoing construction of the Peldehue civil airfield is 50% complete and is expected to finish in July 2019.

Meanwhile, the airport of Pucón (Araucanía region) will be part of the first infrastructure study to be tendered, as it was considered a priority destination by low cost airline Jet-Smart, along with Viña del Mar, Carvallo said.

Finally, in Los Largos region, MOP will tender a US$32mn project to modernize Mocopulli airport on Chiloé island next year.

When consulted by BNamericas regarding the possibility of reconditioning air bases for commercial use, as was done in Argentina to accommodate low cost airlines, Carvallo said that «the possibility exists, but even so these low cost airlines are more interested in the small airports, because of their location.»

Source: Dirección General Aeronáutica de Chile, BNAméricas