Montenegrin airports concession stalls

NEWS FLASH

The process for awarding a thirty-year concession over Montenegro’s two international airports in Podgorica and Tivat has stalled, with the government yet to call on the four qualified candidates to submit their final bids. The tender for the second and final phase of the process was due to launch during the first week of February, however, a month on, there is still no indication when the call may be issued. Complicating matters is that one of the qualified bidders - the Groupe ADP - TAV consortium - recently purchased another of the qualified bidders - GMR from India. As a result, the two companies are now in breach of the Montenegrin concession tender rules due to overlapping ownership. The two other qualified bidders are South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation and Corporation America Airports from Luxembourg. It is also believed that the Montenegrin government has received a notable number of complaints from disqualified bidders over the way in which the first phase of the tender was conducted.