Chinese consortium fully acquires Albania’s sole international airport
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TIRANA, Oct. 7 - Albania's sole international airport, the Tirana International Airport, has officially changed hands with a Chinese consortium led by China Everbright Limited acquiring a 100 percent stake for an undisclosed amount that is estimated at €82 million.
"The current shareholders as well as all employees have proudly developed the airport and served its passengers, providing state-of-the-art facilities. We look forward to further growth under the new shareholder China Everbright Limited, by delivering what our travelers need and wish for,” said Rolf Castro-Vasquez, the CEO of TIA, a consortium of Canadian, German and American investors which has been in charge of airport operations since 2005.
The TIA airport is one of the country’s main hubs serving 2 million passengers a year.
Chen Shuang, the China Everbright Limited (CEL) executive director, said the acquisition will also help promote trade exchanges and tourism between Albania and China.
“With CEL's support and resources, TIA can further upgrade their facilities and hardware meeting excellence in all aspects. Also, leveraging on CEL's extensive networks in China, we believe that trading and tourism between the two countries will be further promoted. Therefore, this acquisition is of great significance and value” , he said.
The airport’s infrastructure, ground handling and commercial services will now be handled by Keen Dynamics Limited, a newly established offshore based in the Cayman Islands, formed between Chinese state-owned investment company China Everbright Limited which holds a 75 percent stake and Hong Kong-based Friedmann Pacific Asset Management Limited focusing on global airport investments.
In late 2015, China Everbright announced plans to invest in airport and infrastructure assets in Europe as part of Beijing’s ambitious “One Belt One Road” initiative, a plan to wrap its own infrastructure and influence westward by land and by sea.
The deal, which has also been okayed by Albania’s Competition Authority, comes at a time when the exclusive rights that the country’s sole international airport has been holding on international flights for a decade have finally been lifted, paving the way for the operation of new airports that would increase competition and reduce current ticket prices, estimated among the region’s highest. The April 2016 deal is expected to activate the new United Arab Emirates-funded Kukes airport in north-eastern Albania and the construction of two new airports in southern Albania serving the tourism industry.
The newly expected operation of the Kukes airport near the Kosovo border will extend TIA’s concession contract until April 2027.
The TIA consortium’s shareholders included AviAlliance GmbH, a subsidiary of Canada-based PSP Investments with 47 percent (formerly Germam HOCHTIEF AirPort GmbH), Germany’s DEG with 31.7 percent and the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund with a 21.3 percent stake.
The new deals are on track to increase China’s presence as a foreign investor in Albania from almost zero to almost half a billion euros making China among the country’s top foreign investors at a time when the economic superpower is already emerging as the country’s second largest trading partner.
Another Chinese company, Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation, has also recently completed the acquisition of Canada-based Bankers Petroleum, the country’s biggest oil producer for C$575 million (€392 mln).
