Southeast Airports Group

active

In November 1998, the Mexican government sold a 15% stake of Aeropuertos del Sureste (Asur) to Inversiones y Tecnicas Aeroportuarias (ITA) for US$120 million (1.17 billion pesos). Asur was incorporated as a wholly-owned entity of the federal government in 1998 and was granted a 50 year concession contract to operate, maintain and upgrade nine airports in the southern region of Mexico (Cozumel, Huatulco, Merida, Minatitlan, Oaxaca, Tapachucla, Veracruz, and Villahermosa). At that time, the nine airports had on average 10 million passengers per year, equivalent to 18% of the airport system total traffic (more than 6 million passengers passing through Cancun Airport). In 1998, ITA was a consortium formed by Danish Copenhagen Airports AS (25.5%), Suez’s subsidiary Groupe GTM (24.5%), Mexican Tribasa S.A. de C.V. (25.5%), and Cintra (24.5%), a subsidiary of the Spanish company Grupo Ferrovial SA. But by 2005, ITA was owned by Copenhagen Airports AS and Fernando Chico Pardo. In Sep. 2000, the government sold 74.9% stake in Asur through an international public offering (IPO) placed in both New York Stock Exchange and Mexican Stock Exchange, raising a total of US$ 335.8 million. No single investor was allowed to hold more than 10% of the company. ITA retained management responsibility but did not control the board of directors. Under the privatization scheme, the share of ITA consortium was restricted to a 15 percent share of Asur with the remaining shares to be publicly sold later. However, ITA was ensured the control of Asur through a 15 year technical-assistance agreement which granted to ITA the management and consulting services to Asur in exchange for a fee. The technical-assistance agreement could be renewed for another 15 year. ITA consortium started operating the airports by December 1998. Under Asur’s concession contract, the company was required to submit an updated master development plan for approval by the Secretary of communications and Transportation (STC) every five years. Each master development plan covered a fifteen-year period and includes investment commitments for the regulated part of our business (including certain capital expenditures and improvements) for the succeeding five-year period and investment projections for the regulated part of our business (including certain capital expenditures and improvements) for the remaining ten years. Once approved by the STC, these commitments became binding obligations under the terms of our concessions. Committed investments were minimum requirements. In July 200, STC approved the first master plan. And in December 2003, it approved the master development plans from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2008. http://www.asur.com.mx/asur/index.asp http://www.icao.int/icao/en/ro/nacc/aps/10_binger.pdf (this link has info on transaction structure) Info from Asur 20F form 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Peso thousand 553,748 262,708 187,105 75,629 365,768 666,762 Peso millon 553.75 262.71 187.11 75.63 365.77 666.76 IMF Exchange rate 9.5 9.3 9.7 10.8 11.3 10.9 US mill 58.56 28.12 19.38 7.01 32.41 61.18