After 14.5 hours of bidding, Limak-GMR-Malaysia Airport partnership agrees to pay almost $3.5 billion to manage
Istanbul’s second airport for the next 20 yearsIstanbul’s second airport Sabiha Gökçen fetched a record 1.932 billion euros plus taxes late on Tuesday in an auction that lasted for 14.5 hours. The winner was Limak-GMR-Malaysia Airport Partnership. The auction of the new overseas terminal building and the attached facilities was held at the Undersecreteriat of Defense Industry. Five partnerships were bidding for the airport. The groups submitted their proposals at 10.30 a.m. and the bidding began at 8 p.m. In the fifth round, TAV-Esas Holding withdrew as the price increased to 1.54 billion euros. In the 22nd round, Mak-Yol-ETİ Bakır-Airport Propesty group withdrew. Partnership led by the Çukurova Holding lasted until the final few rounds.
The İçtaş-Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services bid 1.931 billion euros, as did the Limak group in the 37th round, but the İçtaş group withdrew afterwards. The Limak group increased its last bid by 1.932 billion euros and won the auction. İçtaş-Fraport had clinched the rights to Antalya Airport in April for $3.2 billion. The winning bidder will have to pay the Value Added Tax and a 250 million euros investment payment, the total reaching $3.447 billion. The chairman of the Undersecreteriat of Defense Industries, Murad Bayar, said they would be using the money to finance defense projects, with the payments collected in installments.
Limak Holding CEO Nihat Özdemir told the CNN Türk news channel it had been the longest bidding he had ever been involved in. Istanbul needs this airport, he added. The consortium will build a new international terminal at the Sabiha Gokcen airport on Istanbul’s Asian side and run the airport for 20 years. It will expand annual capacity to 13.5 million air passengers from the current 3.5 million. The deal brings welcome foreign direct investment to fast-growing European Union candidate Turkey and is good news for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) less than two weeks before a general election. Sabiha Gökçen opened in 2001 and hosts domestic Turkish flights and low-cost airline easyJet Plc, among others.