With a record 1.93-billion euro bid, a consortium led by Limak İnşaat and partners in India and Malaysia won the rights to operate of İstanbul’s second international airport, Sabiha Gökçen. Four consortiums - including German, Austrian, Italian and US firms - were involved in the 14.5-hour-long auction bid.
By beating the other contenders, Limak assumed operation rights for 20 years at the airport, which has an annual potential of 10 million passengers. The revenues gained from the bid will be spent for defense and modernization of the military
The bid started Monday at 10:30 a.m. at the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM). The TAV Airports Holding-ESAS Holding consortium, the Çukurova Holding-Julius Meinly Investment-NV Aeroporto Di Venezia Marco Polo Save SPA consortium, the Limak İnşaat AŞ-GMR Infrastructure LTD-Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad consortium, the Mak-Yol İnşaat AŞ-ETİ Bakır AŞ-Airport Property Management Group consortium, the İç Taş İnşaat AŞ-Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide consortium, the Çelebi Hava Servisi-Joint Stock Company consortium and the ATM-Haikou Meilan International Airport consortium all planned to participate in the auction, though the Çelebi-led and ATM-led groups had to quit because of technical problems.
The auction began with close bidding. In the first round Çukurova made the highest bid with 945 million euros. All the consortiums continued to bid until the 16th phase, when the TAV-ESAS group withdrew. The MAK-YOL groups placed the highest bid of 1.72 billion euros in the 21st raw but then withdrew at the 22nd round. The Limak group took the lead in the 27th phase with 1.8 billion euros. Çukurova gave up bidding at the 32nd round, the İçtaş-Fraport group quit at the 37th round and the Limak group proceeded to offer a 1.931 billion euro bid. The auction commission requested that Limak make a final increase and their bid was raised to 1.932 billion euros.
India’s GMR Infrastructure Ltd. and Limak each own a 40 percent stake, with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd possessing the remaining 20 percent in the consortium that won the Sabiha Gökçen contract. Limak Holding President Nihat Özdemir said they were very happy to win the long struggle, pointing out that his partners brought with them great experiences in India and Malaysia. “We will present a tremendous and much-needed airport to İstanbul,” he said. Limak board member Ebru Özdemir said they plan to build an advanced international airport terminal and employ global management techniques to operate Sabiha Gökçen, in addition to building three-storey parking lots, more jetways and a 60-bed airport hotel. She said the investments will be around 250 million euros and the construction will be completed in 30 months. The consortium will begin to make payments in three years and continue them over the next 20 years. İstanbul Atatürk Airport operator and TAV President Hamdi Akın said they were planning to create a synergy by linking Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen airports but gave up when the price went up more than they predicted.