Skopje and Ohrid Airports Concession

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On September 24, 2008 the Transport ministry of Macedonia signed a 20-year concession agreement with the Turkish TAV Airports Holding A.S. (TAV) for the modernization and operation of the Alexander the Great airport in Skopje and St. Paul the Apostle Airport in Ohrid. TAV was a leading airport operator in Turkey engaged in the development, construction and management of airports and terminals. The company operated six airports in Turkey, Georgia and Tunisia. In Macedonia, FYR, TAV established a company, TAV Dooel Skopje, to run operations in this country. TAV received the right to operate two airports through a tender held earlier in September, 2008. TAV was selected as the preferred bidder after it submitted the only bid for the projects. The three firms which expressed interest initially, but did not submit bids, were Vienna Airport, Hochtief and Egis. Under the contract, TAV would modernize the infrastructure at both airports, rent the facilities from the government and operate them for 20 years. In addition to the concession for the two existing airports, TAV received a contract to construct a new cargo terminal at the Stip airport near the eastern Macedonian town of Stip. In the filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange TAV elaborated that the annual rent it would pay to the local authorities for both airports would be 15% of gross revenue until the number of total passengers in the two airports reach 1 million and 2-4% of gross revenue when passenger traffic exceed 1 million. TAV committed to invest about US$294.7 million for modernization and construction works of the three airports. A statement by TAV Airports Holding said that it took over operation of the Alexander the Great Airport in Skopje and St Paul the Apostle International Airport in Ohrid as of March 1, 2010. In Septemeber 2011, TAV opened the new terminal built at the Skope Airport. TAV announced the investment needed for the upgrade amounted to US$ 141 million (100 million euro). As of March 2012, France's Aeroports de Paris Group acquired 38% of the capital of TAV Airports, for US$874 million (666.2 million euro).