Four consortiums and one company are drafting their final offers for a 25-year concession of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. They are stepping up their lobbying and presenting their development plans to the government ahead of the October deadline for the submission of binding bids. Last week, the President and CEO of the Incheon International Airport Corporation, Chung Il-young, met with the Serbian Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure in Belgrade to discuss the concession. "Through these talks, we were able to familiarise the Minister with our operational know-how, which has made Incheon international Airport one of the best in the world. If this acquisition is successful, we will continue to expand our overseas airport investment portfolio in places such as Sanya (China), Eastern Europe and the Middle East", Mr Chung said. Incheon Airport is bidding as part of a consortium togeather with Turkey's Yatirimlar ve isletme and Russia's VTB Capital Infrastructure.
The Vice President of China's HNA Airport Group, Wang Hexin, said in an interview last week that the company is drafting a final pitch for Belgrade Airport jointly with the AVIC International Holding Corporation and the China-Central and Eastern Europe Investment Cooperation Fund. "HNA is actively carrying out the country's Belt and Road initiative with overseas airport construction and investments", Mr Wang said. Last Wednesday, HNA closed the acquisition for an 82.5% stake in Germany's Hahn Airport near Frankfurt, which it bought for 15.1 million euros from the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Others bidding for the Belgrade Airport concession include a consortium made up of France's Meridiam, Zurich Airport and France's Eiffage, followed by the consortium consisting of India's GMR Infrastructure Limited and Greece's Terna, as well as a stand-alone bid by France's Vinci.
Belgrade Airport recently announced it was extending the bidding deadline by a month from late September until October 23, due to requests made by the participating parties. "Having in mind the amount and complexity of the documentation made available to the qualified bidders in the virtual data room, and bearing in mind that they have formed consortiums, the Public Body has decided that the deadline for the submission of binding offers should be extended so that all qualified bidders have sufficient time to analyse all available data, procure necessary financing and submit adequate applications for their binding offers", the airport said. Under the new timeframe, a winning bid is expected to be selected in December and the deal to be brought to a financial close by March 2018. "The final concession agreement will be fine-tuned to reflect the content of the selected bid, in particular the financial and technical parts of the selected bid", the airport said. The government anticipates that the airport could fetch up to 500 million euros, as an up-front payment, which would be followed by a yearly concession fee.
I just hope they don't make a similar "deal" like the one they made with Etihad, where the government pays for everything.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI agree. The problem is, I don't trust this government to do anything correctly.
DeleteWhy would it be the same? Unlike Jat, BEG is not a failed company that's losing millions.
DeletePamenjakovici zaboravljaju da je donacije vlada naplatila preko dobiti aerodroma. Sad njega izdaju.
DeleteПа да, Влада пресипа из шупљег у празно јер није нашла правог партнера за Јат. Они су буквално нашли консултанта који им је дебело наплатио своје услуге.
DeleteI'm not the smart one, but please explain this:
DeleteBEG Operating profit:
2013 eur 16.5m
2014 eur 29.6m
2015 eur 30.3m
2016 eur 29.2m
AirSerbia donations (2013-2016): eur 164m
Da li ti zaista mislis da je 50 m jura razlike zaista zasluzilo pricu kada su na druge projekte sprzili stotine m jura? znaci juro po glavi stanovnika ove zemlje godisnje. Silno ste osteceni vi koji ne placate porez, a kukate za njim. Kada se ociste dinkicevci iz aviosaobracaja bice svima bolje.
DeleteWell, this is an aviation forum, so we talk about aviation projects. I don't have info on other projects.
DeletePonavljam pitanje da li je evro godisnje po glavi previse? Veliki poreski obaveznici.
DeleteNe znam kako si sracunao evro godisnje po glavi.
DeleteAko su dali 162 u periodu 2014-2016, to mu izadje na ~8 evra po glavi stanovnika godisnje za te tri godine ili ~31 evra godisnje po zaposlenom.
I have actually heard that Zurich consortium offered the most money for the concession. We will see.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that there is more Asian then European interest for the airport.
ReplyDeleteBecause Asian don't have any profit in Europe, and it's for them new land.
DeleteWill Hainan keep flying to Belgrade if HNA doesn't get the concession?
ReplyDeleteWhat, they will fly to Belgrade? I was led to believe by experts here that they will never fly to BEG.
DeleteHNA IS going to win so there is no need to worry about that.
DeleteWhat is the realistic figure they could get for the airport? How much did Croatia get for ZAG?
ReplyDeleteCroatia gets a yearly fee but they also got the new terminal worth 300 odd million. makes me think that it will be difficult for Serbia to get the 500 million upfront if they want the winner to invest in some serious infrastructure upgrades.
DeleteWell they better finish the entire thing before JU goes bust. Then the value of the airport will decline significantly.
ReplyDeleteHere we go agan... take a break, have a Kit-Kat, chill for once
DeletePoor guy... the thing is, he knows that JU won't 'go bust' because the government amd EY won't allow it, he just needs to vent
DeleteThis was probably his comment from some time ago
Deletehttp://i.imgur.com/eI5pqOv.png
^ The guy that posted that comment is still very active on Air Serbia posts. He is recognizable by his ";)" always singing the same tune.
DeleteNo, the ;) guy was me but I didn't write the comment above.
DeleteSelling a successful company that has been financing its own development without any loans. Absolutely crazy.
ReplyDeleteBecause the scope of investments planned in the next 25 years are too big and the airport will be unable to cover it even with the large profit it has at the moment.
DeleteA new terminal should be one of the priorities.
DeleteAgree. Big mistake giving this airport up for concession.
DeleteWhy couldn't the airport take a loan for these investments? Banks would be happy to finance a successful company.
DeleteThe principal reason for concession is to stop meddling of politics and party employment, which doomed Telekom.
With Russians, Turks or Chinese political influence would continue and Serbian national interests would take a backseat.
Hope that Zuerich consortium or Vinci will be chosen.
In aviation like everywhere else is political. It is like that everywhere in the world.
DeleteIt all depends who gives the best proposal but I think the Koreans would do the best in terms of infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteI still think Vinci might be a surprise. They have been planning for this concession for 2 years when they first said they wanted to operate BEG.
DeleteI hope it will go to the French. They did a good job with Zagreb.
DeleteChinese company would be best because they will also work on developing tourism and attracting Chinese tourists.
DeleteI would also be happy if the end of result was similar to Zagreb's concession - a new terminal building and professional management.
DeleteChinese investments in Serbia have all turned out quite well.
DeleteProfesionalni menadzmen koji ne drzi vatrogasce na aerodromu 24 h?
DeleteI also don't think Zagreb management should be used as an example. Terminal is smaller than planned (not saying it's bad it looks nice) and they have cut costs on staff, secutiy... They have done well in attracting new airlines but that may also have to do with bumper tourists numbers in the country + recent EU entry which makes your case for attracting new airline much easier.
Delete@ 9.52 Cooperation with Chinese usually only benefits the Chinese.
DeleteThe thing is, we don't exactly know what the requirement the government has given to the future concessionaire.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this
ReplyDelete"The final concession agreement will be fine-tuned to reflect the content of the selected bid, in particular the financial and technical parts of the selected bid"
IMHO - it is usual that seller early in the process gives interested parties a draft of the purchase/concession agreement, outlining what are general terms & conditions. this is done in order not to lose time later on negotiating agreement and notice any red flags early, so the the deal won't be broken in the late stages.
Deleteso, once the government accepts one bid the draft agreement will be changed to reflect the particularities of the bid (upforont payment, yearly payments, who needs to build what. some specific obligations of the state or obligations of concessionaire tied to the bid, and so on...
hope that helps explaining
+1
ReplyDeletePretty good and high quality bidders. May the best one win.
Can anyone tell us how much Zagreb, Pristina and Skopje+Ohrid got for their concession.
ReplyDeleteNil for PRN.
DeleteLIMAK built a new terminal, control tower, and runway and taxiway extensions valued at €140m.
They'll operate the airport for 20 years and the Kosovar government will be handed approximately a third of annual profits.
It seems that future expansion, such as lengthening of the runway will be funded jointly by LIMAK and the Kosovar government.
any news on negotiations with serbia concerning BEG-PRN flights?
Delete@AnonymousAugust 14, 2017 at 9:28 AM
DeleteZagreb concession was badly done, should have been held again.
Zagreb concession was €343 million for 35 years, with many loopholes and escape clauses that only benefits the investor not the state.
It was done poorly and without a proper oversight. Zagreb was making nice profits before concession was agreed and already had reserve of 250 million kuna for planned new terminal. If government waited and agreed EU funding for the airport, it wold get at least €250 million from the EU with Zagreb raising another €50 millions and airport savings would have added another €50 million easily. Yes new terminal would have been delayed by a year, but we'd end up with the original design.
Original design was 75700sqm terminal, 4 levels, with one underground level where sorting facility is. Underground parking was also planned for 550-700 cars, mostly airport staff and vip.
Planned airport would have had 16 jet-bridges, instead of current 8, 670m long terminal would have had capacity of 10 million.
Petar, unfortunately, no new developments. I believe there's actually sufficient demand for O&D traffic between PRN and BEG on top of potential transit passengers (of particular interest to JU are ~15k annual pax from the NYC area). The Kosovar side insist on 'normalisation' of relations in the area of civil aviation, amongst others leading to opening of Serbian air space to flights that arrive to or depart from PRN.
DeleteIt's ok, there is no need for BEG-PRN to be introduced any time soon. I think there are much better and more lucrative destinations to be launched first.
DeletePlus, imagine a Serbian plane landing at an airport called 'Adem Jashari.' So much for the Albanians wanting for the relations to be normalized.
well JU is flying to franjo tuđman
DeleteBelgrade recognizes Croatia as an independent state while Kosovo is a different story. Plus, the airport was named after Tudjman after JU launched flights.
DeleteIn the end, it's still a shame Croatia didn't find someone better who isn't a politician like Belgrade, Ljubljana, Budapest, Warsaw, Munich... did.
i guess zračna luka zvonimir boban would be nice
DeleteWill there be more flights to China if Hainan wins?
ReplyDeleteYes, probably to Shanghai. Their objective would be to increase passenger numbers by increasing the number of Chinese visitors.
DeleteI would be interested to see their strategy in increasing tourist numbers from China to Belgrade.
DeleteThey own so many airlines and tour operators in China, I'm sure they would use them. I have also read they plan to buy Hotel Salavija, which would probably be completely reconstructed to cater to the needs of Chinese guests.
DeleteThis could really bring a lot of Chinese feed to the airport.
DeleteWell, I don't know what exact strategy they have but there seems to be one given the rise in tourist numbers.
DeleteAlso, Serbia has been heavily promoting itself in China. It's not just Hainan doing the job.
Chinese are most likely to turn BEG into regional hub.
DeleteNew terminal and new runway are necessary. Focusing on cargo could also be lucrative.
ReplyDeleteNew terminal is, new runway definitely isn't.
DeleteBoth are important, especially second one.
DeleteBEG has been impressive this year. Strong growth despite JU stagnating, new airlines, new routes and second long haul route. Good work.
ReplyDeleteShould hit 5,5 million passengers this year
Delete+100
DeleteThe fact that foreigners performed so well goes to show the potential of the local market, especially as the economy starts to stabilize. Let's see how both QR and FZ perform this winter. With JU suspending AUH, EY is slowly becoming irrelevant on the market.
Lots of bigger planes in Belgrade today.
DeleteSVO-BEG SU A321
MUC-BEG LH A320
STR-BEG EW A320
IST-BEG TK A321
Plus the scheduled A321 from DOH.
Look at LO. Over the past six flights, three were on the E95 and three on E75!
DeleteI can't wait to see how they perform this coming winter.
Is the Turkish company in the Korea consortium a cover for TAV?
ReplyDeleteNo it's a different company. They also bid with Incheon for Zagreb. TAV also bid for ZAG.
DeleteOk, thanks :)
DeletePeople were first saying how the Arabs would win. Then how the French would win. Now it's the Chinese.
ReplyDeleteYeah but they said that for the Arabs and the French before the tender.
DeleteBasically it's just speculation.
DeleteJedno je sigurno. Najveci broj zaintresovanih ljudi za koncesiju Beogradskog aerodroma sa nestrpljenjem iscekuju oktobar. Licno verujem da ce dobiti Kineski HNA ili Aerodrom Cirih. Mada je nezahvalno prognozirati. Nadajmo se da ce se Beogradska vazdusna luka vise nego dvostruko povecati. Vreme najveceg aerodroma jugo istocne Evrope dolazi. Ne racunajuci Atinski i Istanbulski aerodrom.
ReplyDeletePozdrav iz Sidneja.
Rodney.🇷🇸🗺🇦🇺😀🌐
koju fantaziju imas brate, svaka cast na izdrzivljosti :)
DeleteThe HNA already won, we have just to wait until count-down ends.
DeleteAnd BEG just reported 11.5 million EUR net profit for first half of the year!
ReplyDeleteNice
DeleteTotal revenue 37 million
DeleteGross profit 13.7 miilion
Those are good financial results from BEG airport.
DeleteThose are some killer margins
Delete@AnonymousAugust 14, 2017 at 10:09 AM
DeleteSmall revenue, and massive profits, that can't be.
Creative accounting very strong....
Let's wait and see but I also believe the Chinese will win this. It would be an interesting game then. We have Germans in Slovenia, French in Croatia, Chinese in Serbia and Turks in Macedonia and Kosovo.
ReplyDeleteand Montenegro's airports will go to the Arabs.
DeleteSo far the Turks are the doing the best.
DeleteWill the future concession finally include the proposal to build a second runway anytime soon? BEG´s traffic will treble in 5 years time and the runway will be overcrowded leading to delays and chaos.
ReplyDeleteIf the Russians win, they will build it.
What Russians?
DeleteRead the article:
DeleteIncheon Airport is bidding as part of a consortium togeather with Turkey's Yatirimlar ve isletme and Russia's VTB Capital Infrastructure.
The expansion of the HNA group in Serbia seems very interesting. I wish them luck and I hope it benefits the average Serbian traveler.
ReplyDeleteOn the pic I see perfect space for a new terminal after the C gates.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea if the tender will be transparent or they already have a predetermined winner but I hope the one with the best bid wins.
ReplyDeleteIncheon don't seem to have any investments in Europe. They look like strong contender.
ReplyDeleteAnd just last month their transport minister came to Belgrade to lobby for the bid too.
DeleteThe fact that they sent an official over to lobby for their bid shows that they are keen but I still think this is locked in for the Chinese.
DeleteNot really. It is completely normal that the government is lobbying.
Delete"The fact that they sent an official over to lobby for their bid shows that they are keen"
DeleteOf course they are keen. They are in the last 5!
I really hope BEG all the very best, but lets not jump to conclusions yet until the winner is announced.
ReplyDeleteTo me it will be most interesting to see how much money Serbia can get from this concession.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important would be to attract new airlines and expand capacity.
ReplyDeleteDo any Asian companies have concession in South east Europe? Or beyond?
ReplyDelete- Chinese have Tirana.
Delete- Chinese have Maribor.
- Changi Airport Investments has 20% stake in Budapest
The Indian company GMR and Greek company which are bidding for Belgrade recently won tender to build the new airport in Heraklion in Greece.
DeleteI would go for an European company
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't. I would go for either the Chinese or the South Koreans.
DeleteThe best offer should be the winner, no matter what's the country origin or political preferences at this moment.
DeleteNot really. A European company with some other airports in the region would be the worst solution.
DeleteThe HNA already won, we have just to wait until count-down ends.
Delete@Anonymous August 14, 2017 at 12:35 PM
DeleteAnd you decided that because?
I really don't understand the urge of the concession. The Serbian government already did a decent job investing in the airport. Why just not leave it in the government's hands instead?
ReplyDeleteIt's not really a choice. In order to secure a standby arrangement with the IMF the government was given a requirement to privatize several companies with BEG being one of them.
DeleteSerbia should not take any more loans.
DeleteZasto? Sve bogatije zemlje su prezaduzene Nemci duguju 2600 milijardi dolara, Francuski dug je 2300 milijardi i presisao je GDP. To nikada nece vratiti.
DeleteThose countries you listed have an economy from which they can pay it back. What does Serbia have? A bunch of foreign companies that receive subsidies.
DeleteNe decace ne mogu to vratiti kao ni Grcka nad kojom se izivljavaju. Mozes da sanjas koliko zelis oni taj novac ne mogu vratiti bez teskih drustvenih lomova. Francuska je dobila klovna kao predsednika sa kojim su srecni dok im dug pici u nebo.
DeleteSrbija nije bogata zemlja, to je razlika.
DeleteŠta znači 'decace'?
Delete@AnonymousAugust 14, 2017 at 5:04 PM
DeleteMost of French debt is privately owned, i.e. banks, corporations and non-gov institutions.
French annual revenue is in the region of €1.1 trillion in tax, only €40 billion goes on paying towards debt repayments.
France is 5th largest economy in the world.
Germany exports €1.6 trillion, its budget is €1.5 trillion, and same as France much of its obligations are long term state bond obligations. The mature over decade or two, and pay out dividend to shareholders.
In short German or French state bonds are like savings in your bank, as secure as things can be secure.
You can't possibly compare Germany, France with Serbia. Serbia don't even issues the bonds, cause no one would buy them.
Massive difference, if France could issue $5 trillion worth of bonds, they'd sell out in less than a week, Same for Germany. This is how most investment banks and investors make money, buy buying bonds and collecting long term interest, which normally is between 2-3%, in high finance you can't get better long term return. Ask any bond trader you'll see.
Ja sam vec dovoljno slomova berze preziveo da ne verujem u tvoje reci. Svaki put ih cujes I 1987 i 2000 i 2007-8 i dva pad cena nekretnina. Samo ti veruj bond trejderima. I molim te ne pricaj da moze toliko novca da povuku, jer ga nema toliko u zivom dostupnom novcu.
Delete@AnonymousAugust 14, 2017 at 8:54 PM
DeleteSovereign bonds,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_bond
Every country can issue an bond, however it is up to investors to trust that government will repay its obligation at the end when bond matures.
Most trussted governments have high credit risk rating, normally AA ,or AAA. credit rating is issued by companies such as IFC Fitch, S&P, Moody's...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_rating_agency
In modern time, i/e since 1947, No Western nation has ever defaulted on its Bond obligations. France has maintained triple A or AA+ credit rating for much of past 50 years.
Sovereign or government bond obligations isn't really a debt as more of investment in to a country by small or large investors. This is how banks set their interest rates btw, the rate they can recoup their investments.
If you can buy French bonds or German bonds today, you can count yourself lucky, as both nations do not issue bonds regularly and when they do it is known months ahead, and investors are pilling up.
In fact you'll see major investment banks besieging government finance minister to get first slice at getting the piece of pie.
Recently (2015) when Croatian Government last time issued a state bond, @5.5% insert, 7.5 year maturity, it over over-prescribed 4 times. Croatia raised €1.25 billion, however offers where coming for €5 billion.
When Germany issues a bond, it is often over-prescribed by as much as 8 times in less than a week of being issued. Governments will issue bonds to raise money to finance various projects to avoid increasing the taxes.
However most nations in the world, their bonds are worthless, and could sell only with promise of high interest maturity. Casing point Greece. Greece now can't issue a single bond cause no one would buy Greek bonds, they're worthless, not worth the paper they're written on. Same goes with Russia, Much of Africa or Argentina for that matter.
Good bonds are from stable EU/EEA members (Greece excluded), US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, NZ, S. Korea, China, ASEAN, Costa Rican bonds are very popular, India, and few other very rich countries.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-countries-whose-bonds-are-safer-than-treasurys-2013-10-09
So if you are looking to buy bonds, this is if you can get them, NZ and Australian bonds are in high demand. Bonds can be bought, just very hard for small investors, you need to buy in chunks of $5 million a bare minimum.
Normally bonds are bought in chunks of €100 million or more, and are in high demand by Corporations who want to secure their balance sheets. Example, Amazon owned by Jeff Bezos has around $50 billion in bonds, Mostly German, Dutch, UK, NZ and Japanese.
Microsoft, Google, Tesla, Facebook, ... all of them collect government bonds like they're collectibles. Any company valued over $5 billion in US, EU, holds at least 1-5% of their total market value in government bonds.
Total market capitalization of every company that exceeds $5bn market value in US alone is over $30 trillion. And btw that is bare minimum. So this is bit of education for you. In case you think this is hogwash, ask any economist in Serbia who deals with international markets on a daily basis, as bank economist or analyst and they'll tell you this in clear Serbian so you can understand this better.
@AnonymousAugust 14, 2017 at 8:54 PM
DeletePS, slomovi berza, nothing to do with government bonds. Only way for Triple A government bonds to lose value, if issuing government is no more. has been destroyed by a massive volcano or sunk like Atlantis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJh6EQ5gv7g
Ajde odmori malo sa Wikipediom. I 2000 i 2007 sam bio na licu mesta u US i nemas 401K kao ja.
DeleteNagledao sam se ljudi koji su izgubili sve slusajuci ljude kao ti. Znaci nema toliko zivog novca za investicije 5 trilion. Ponavljam ti ne pricaj o tome koliko trziste vredi vec koliko ima zivog novca. To mozes da saznas ako pogledas ekonomske profile zemalja.
@AnonymousAugust 14, 2017 at 11:18 PM
DeleteYou're talking about France and Germany here hose!
I am explaining you how their debt is defined and why there's little risk for government to default on borrowing, so far Germany and France manged to do quite well with their finances, even during the worst economic crisis for the € in 2012 and 2014/15.
Are people suffering as a result of economic slowdown, but Germany and France manged to stay afloat and are doing fine now.
Udavite ljudi ajme meni.
DeleteLove the pic. Does the A330 always park at angle like that?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteI have not seen anywhere what are the obligations of the concessionaire? What if anything are they expected to build? Terminal 1 & 2 were recently renovated, so what is left to do? Usually in the outline for potential concessionaire's it is clearly stated what capital investments with a timeline are to constructed. All I've heard is speculation.
ReplyDeleteHainan post on their fb page news about Pek-Prg-Beg route.
ReplyDeleteAre other airports in Serbia (operational and potential) also included in the deal?
ReplyDeleteNo, just BEG.
DeleteGood. Some competition is healthy.
Delete€500 million upfront??? Doubt it. Otherwise, the offers look very promising, many companies have recognized Belgrade's potential.
ReplyDeleteGood luck neighbors and personally, I would hope for South Koreans! That would be so amazing, I think!!