Pulkovo Airport

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On October 30, 2009, Northern Capital Gateway consortium, comprised of Fraport AG [Germany] (35.5%), VTB Bank [Russian Federation] (57.5%) and Copelouzos Group [Greece] (7%), signed a 30-year build, rehabilitate, operate and transfer concession contract for Pulkovo Airport, which serves the city of St. Petersburg. The airport had 6.8 million passenger movements in 2009, and was comprised of two runways and two passenger terminals - one for international and one for domestic flights. The assets were owned by the city of St. Petersburg via the municipally-owned company, «Pulkovo Airport». The city government of St. Petersburg awarded the concession through a competitive tender, launched in April 2008. The World Bank acted as the strategic adviser to the city government on the concession. Nine consortia submitted pre-qualification bids. The consortia were headed by Vienna Airport, Fraport, Hochtief, TAV Airport, GMR Infrastructure, Basic Element, Macquarie, Stroykorporatsiya Elis and Novaport. Seven parties were shortlisted on Aug. 12, 2008. The two consortia not selected were Novaport and Stroykorporatsiya Elis. The final tender was issued on Feb. 5, 2009. Three consortia submitted final bids: Fraport/VTB/Copelouzos (Northern Capital Gateway), Vienna Airport/ZAO Lider and Changi Airport/Basic Element. The award was based on a combination of legal, technical and financial criteria. The main financial criterion was the highest percentage of project revenues transferred to the city government. On June 17, 2009, it was announced that Northern Capital Gateway was the winner of the legal and technical phase of the tender. On June 25, 2009, it was announced that Northern Capital had also won the financial part of the tender, bidding a royalty payment to the city government of 11.5% of revenues. The project reached closure on April 29, 2010, when the airport assets were transferred to Northern Capital Gateway. Securing financing was one of the key conditions for the finalization of the concession contract and the transfer of the assets to the private consortium. The financing package - amounting to US$1.53 billion (EUR1.15 billion) in support of a four-year capital expenditure program - was signed on April 28, 2010. It comprised EUR400 million (US$531.91 million) in equity and EUR750 million (US$998 million) in debt. The debt comprised a RUR10 billion (US$342.5 million) term loan for which Vnesheconombank was the Mandated Lead Arranger, EUR190 million (US$252.66 million) in jointly syndicated indirect term loans from EBRD (US$126.33 million) and IFC (US$126.33 million), a EUR100 million (US$132.98 million) direct loan from EBRD, a EUR70 million (US$93.08 million) direct loan from IFC, a EUR67.67 million (US$89.99 million) loan from Eurasian Development Bank, a EUR50 million (US$66.49 million) loan from Nordic Investment Bank and a EUR15 million (US$19.95 million) loan from Black Sea Trade and Development Bank. The Northern Capital Gateway consortium undertook to build a new passenger terminal of ca. 100.000–140.000 sqm catering to domestic and international passengers. Further, it was to: integrate the existing Terminal 1 into the new terminal and close the existing Terminal 2 once the new terminal has been inaugurated; expand apron areas; develop real estate adjacent to the terminal; and modernize existing infrastructure. In 2012, Pulkovo Airport (LED) welcomed 11.2 million passengers.The new terminal 1, which started test operations by the end of 2013, was able to accommodate 17 million passengers.