Tag: TAV

UPDATE 1-Istanbul airport tender seen drawing four bids-sources

* Third Istanbul airport project worth 7 billion euros

* Technical complexities discourage foreign interest

* Airport described as world’s largest at full capacity (Adds quote, details, background)

By Ozge Ozbilgin

ANKARA, April 19 (Reuters) – A tender to build Istanbul’s third airport, which Turkey says could eventually be the world’s largest, is expected to attract up to four bids, with limited foreign interest in the 7 billion euro ($9 billion) project, sources close to the matter said.

The government project reflects the growing importance of Istanbul, Europe’s largest city, as a regional transport hub in tandem with Turkey’s economic rise over the last decade.

Alongside already expected bids from TAV, which is partly French owned, and IC Ictas-Fraport, the sources said a consortium of Turkishconstruction companies Cengiz, Kolin, Limak, Mapa and Kalyon was set to bid in the May 3 tender.

Turkish conglomerate Sabanci Holding and construction company Enka Insaat were also working together on a possible bid, the sources said, adding that the size of the project and the technical difficulties which it entails were seen discouraging foreign interest.

“We think it would be a surprise if a bid is made by anyone apart from these four groups,” one source close to the matter said.

Quarries are located in the area near the Black Sea on the European side of Istanbul where the airport is to be built and filling them alone will cost some 2-2.5 billion euros, discouraging foreign interest, the source said.

At the start of the process, airport operators from Singapore, Britain and the Netherlands expressed an interest but there is no indication that any will take part in the tender.

The same source also said it would be difficult for new partners to join the project after the tender.

The companies involved and government officials declined to comment.

REGIONAL HUB

Turkey unveiled in January its plans to build the airport, which will have a total of six runways and eventually able to handle 150 million passengers per year.

Turkey’s transport minister said the airport would be the largest in the world in terms of passengers at full capacity, though it was not clear when this would be. Istanbul, the hub for flag carrier Turkish Airlines, is becoming a major regional hub, linking destinations in Europe and Asia.

The tender for the build-operate-transfer project, to be conducted in four stages, will be for a 25-year lease. An annual capacity of 90 million passengers is planned for the first stage.

The first stage of construction is expected to be completed in 3-4 years. But sector sources said it would be nearly impossible to finish the construction so quickly.

Among the expected bidders, TAV has the operating rights for Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, the country’s largest with some 30 million international passengers last year.

Operations at Ataturk are likely to be heavily scaled back when the third airport opens. Ataturk’s new international terminal costing hundreds of millions of dollars was opened only just over a decade ago, but a huge rise in air traffic through Istanbul has left it running at full capacity. The airport has only two main runways.

TAV has said the Turkish airports authority would compensate it for any losses if the third airport opened while it was still running Ataturk.

TAV also runs airports in Tunisia, Macedonia, Georgia, Latvia and Saudi Arabia. Among the other prospective bidders, Limak has also been involved in airport projects on the Asian side of Istanbul, in Egypt and in Kosovo.

Hamdi Akin, the chairman of major TAV shareholder Akfen, said earlier this month the company was not looking for a partner in the project, though it could consider a financing partnership later.

Bidders in the project are expected to provide around 1.5 billion euros in share capital, with project financing seen amounting to around 5 billion euros. ($1 = 0.7644 euros) (Reporting by Ozge Ozbilgin; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Clelia Oziel)

April 20, 2013
Turkey’s TAV Airports Wins Prestigious Award

In news from the European Business Awards (EBA) TAV Airports was selected as “best of Turkey” for the customer focus category of the most prestigious awards.

TAV Airports

Courtesy TAV Airports

Turkey’s leading airport operations company, TAV Airports is now a finalist for these EBA awards to be finalized in April. TAV Airports’ Human Resources Director, Yiğit Oğuz Duman, accepted this most recent award on behalf of his company at the gala held at the Conrad Hotel. He offered this comment via the Istanbul Airport’s press:

“Customer satisfaction is the focus of all operations of TAV that has become a global brand in airport operations in a short time. We are providing services with pioneering and innovative solutions in all areas of airport operations with more than 22 thousand employees. What lies behind our financial success is meeting various needs by analyzing and interpreting passenger behavior and attitudes meticulously and correctly. Being aware that customer satisfaction is achieved by happy employees, we make all our investments for the development of our human resources. We are working 7/24 to ensure our passengers a safe, quick, and comfortable travel experience. We are glad to be deemed worthy for this award and honored to represent our country among European companies”.

Winners in the various categories for Europe compete for what is known as Ruban d’Honneur status, a badge of honor given select companies by a jury of members including leaders of the business world, academicians and journalists in January.

TAV Airports is among an elite group of businesses now set for evaluation and the grand prizes to be awarded in April. For more information on these prestigious awards, readers can see the judges as well as follow the current events at EBA’s site.

The video below tells more about the excellence of these awards.

via Turkey’s TAV Airports Wins Prestigious Award.

December 23, 2012
Sani Şener’s Success Story on CNN International

TAV Grubu CEO’su Sani Şener, CNN International’da yayınlanan “Global Exchange” programında, Türk inşaat şirketlerinin 2000’li yıllardan itibaren bölgede büyük başarı sağladığını söyledi. Şener, hükümetin dış politikasının ve Türkiye’nin tarihten gelen yakınlığının başarının zeminini hazırladığını belirtti. Şener ayrıca TAV’ın İpek Yolu üzerinde hayata geçirdiği projelerle yarattığı başarı hikayesini anlattı.

via Sani Şener CNN International’da Türk şirketlerinin başarısını anlattı – YouTube.

November 1, 2012
Aeroports de Paris to Buy 38% of Turkey Airport Operator TAV

By Alex Webb and Ercan Ersoy

Aeroports de Paris, operator of the French capital’s airports, agreed to buy a 38 percent stake in Turkish counterpart TAV Havalimanlari Holding AS (TAVHL) for $874 million, the French operator’s largest purchase abroad.

TAV runs Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, seen here, as well as terminals in Latvia, Macedonia and Saudi Arabia. Photographer: Adam Berry/Bloomberg

The agreement with TAV (TAVHL)’s three biggest shareholders also includes a separate acquisition of a 49 percent stake in a construction company, TAV Yatirim Holding AS, for $49 million, Paris-based ADP said today in a statement. ADP and TAV will run 37 airports serving 180 million passengers worldwide, it said.

Enlarge image Aeroports de Paris to Buy 38% Holding in Turkey’s TAV

TAV runs Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, seen here, as well as terminals in Latvia, Macedonia and Saudi Arabia. Photographer: Adam Berry/Bloomberg

ADP was competing with Vinci SA (DG), Europe’s biggest construction company, to buy the TAV stake from investors including Akfen Holding AS (AKFEN). TAV runs Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Europe’s eighth-busiest, as well as terminals in Georgia, Tunisia, Latvia and Macedonia, and it has a contract to build and run an airport in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The purchase will help ADP’s earnings in 2013, the French company said.

“They already had some management contracts in some other foreign airports, but this is the first time that they’ve taken a stake this big in an airport this important,” said Laure Desbrosses, a Paris-based analyst at Oddo & Cie. “The price paid is not excessive, valuing TAV at about 15 percent more than its peers, so it’s a good move.”

Stocks Decline

ADP fell as much as 0.6 percent to 59.93 euros and was trading down 0.3 percent at 60.16 euros at 1:01 p.m. in Paris. The stock has gained 14 percent this year, valuing the company at 5.95 billion euros ($7.8 billion). TAV declined as much as 1.4 percent and was trading down 0.7 percent at 8.48 liras for a market value of 3.08 billion liras ($1.71 billion).

The other shareholders in TAV that are selling stakes are Tepe Holding AS’s Bilkent Holding and Sera Yapi Endustrisi & Ticaret AS.

“There will be a good return on our investment” by the time TAV’s operating concession for Ataturk Airport, the Turkish company’s biggest asset, expires in 2021, ADP Chief Executive Pierre Graff said in an interview after a news conference in Istanbul. The airport’s traffic rose 17 percent last year to 37.5 million passengers.

ADP may not have to make a mandatory tender offer to smaller shareholders in the Turkish airport operator because there’s no change in control of its board, though this is “something that the capital markets regulator will decide,” TAV CEO Sani Sener said at the news conference.

Investment Plan

The French airport operator said it’s paying about 11.30 liras a share for the stake. The purchase is part of ADP’s program of investing in international airports handling more than 10 million passengers a year with “strong” earnings growth potential in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development markets or Brazil, Russia, India or China, it said.

“There is a strategy that has been put in place by TAV which consists of acquiring external airports, one at a time,” Graff said at the news conference. “We have a great deal of respect for what has been achieved at TAV and don’t intend to change this strategy,” and the partners will take the lead in acquisitions in their respective stronger markets.

ADP owns 8 percent of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and held a stake in Beijing Capital International Airport Company Ltd. before selling that holding in 2007.

The acquisition is subject to the approval of Turkish antitrust regulators, Sener said. ADP will pay for the stake in cash at the closing, he said.

TAV’s selling shareholders hired Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) as its financial adviser, while Pekin & Bayar Law Firm (818987L) and Ertekin Law Office served as counsel. Aeroports de Paris (ADP) hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) as its adviser, and Hogan Lovells (1131L) and Pekin & Pekin as counsel.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Webb in Frankfurt at awebb25@bloomberg.net; Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net; Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net

via Aeroports de Paris to Buy 38% of Turkey Airport Operator TAV – Bloomberg.

March 15, 2012
TAV Airports goes on the market for £1.75bn

Europe’s fastest growing airports group has been put up for sale with a €2bn (£1.75bn) price tag.

By Helia Ebrahimi, and Garry White

9:45PM BST 29 Oct 2011

Along with Atatürk airport in Istanbul, the company also operates airports in Georgia, Tunisia and Macedonia. Photo: Reuters

Turkey’s TAV Airports, which flies 48m passengers every year, has hired Credit Suisse to run a sales process.

TAV – itself a potential bidder for Edinburgh Airport – is likely to attract interest from the owner of Gatwick and London City airport, Global Infrastructure Partners, German airport operator Hochtief, BAA owner Ferrovial, Canada’s Borealis, Australia’s Macquarie, and the infrastructure funds from Goldman Sachs and 3i.

TAV, which is listed in Istanbul, has seen passenger numbers in Turkey surge dramatically in the last year. Last week it said third quarter net profits had increased 81pc to 90.1m (£32m) Turkish lira compared to the same time last year. Overall sales also climbed 42pc to 616.2m lira as the health of the Turkish economy has withstood the buffeting of the eurozone crisis.

Along with the Istanbul airport, the company also operates airports in Georgia, Tunisia and Macedonia – but most of these are very small. The main cash cow remains Istanbul’s Atatürk airport.

In total, the company runs more than 420,000 flights with an aim to have 100m passengers within the next 10 years.

A lot of the value of the airport company rests in how long the concession to run Istanbul airport lasts.

However, potential buyers have suggested that much of the company’s strength lies in its success running non-aviation operations, which have generated increasing amounts of profit. About 57pc of TAV’s overall sales come from non-aviation revenue such as duty free and food and beverage.

Also, there is significant opportunity to expand. Turkey has the potential to double annual passenger capacity at airports to 206m, according to San Sener, TAV’s chief executive.

Potential buyers are currently looking at the sales information with bids not due until next month.

TAV is the latest example of a Turkish asset being sought by foreign buyers in search of double digit growth. In February, Diageo bought raki maker Mey Icki for £1.3bn from private equity firm TPG.

Companies and investors have watched as Turkey has outstripped China in terms of growth. Its hypercharged acceleration saw growth in the first half of 2011 up 10.2pc.

Earlier this month, the business secretary, Vince Cable, led a delegation that included a UK construction company seeking to help build a third bridge over the Bosphorus. At the time he said: “There’s a vast potential that we haven’t tapped until now.”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, is on record as saying he wishes to double the country’s per capita income to $25,000 (£15,508) by 2023.

Turkey is currently the 17th largest economy in the world, with Mr Erdogan seeking to catapult it into the world’s top 10.

However, there have been worries that the economy could be overheating. Turkey’s trade deficit increased 55pc on a year-on-year basis in September to a record $10.41bn as imports surged. This followed an improvement in foreign trade in August.

via TAV Airports goes on the market for £1.75bn – Telegraph.

October 30, 2011
Georgian Wine Attracts Thousands of Buyers Daily at Istanbul Ataturk Airport

Georgian Wine Attracts Thousands of Buyers Daily at Istanbul Ataturk Airport

Written by Mariam Papidze

05/09/2011 07:37 (20:35 minutes ago)

The FINANCIAL — Six leading Georgian wine companies: Badagoni, Tbilvino, Kvanchkara LTD, Kindzmareulis Marani, Teliani Valley and Kakheti Traditional Wine Making are offering famous Georgian wine to the millions of passengers visiting Istanbul Ataturk International Airport .

The six-month negotiations regarding this have been successfully completed.

As a result of cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and TAV Holding, a ‘Georgian Wine Corner’ was opened in the Duty Free in Istanbul Ataturk International Airport on August 15, 2011. “This will help not only the popularization of Georgian wine, but will also raise awareness of the national wine production and international market position to expand,” announced the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia.

In 10 days 36,000 bottles of wine have already been sold.

“On the first day, 120 bottles of wine were sold in one hour. Among them 50 were bought by Georgian customers,” said Tamer Cigeroglu, the manager of ATU Georgia. “Mainly Russian, Japanese and Chinese people buy Georgian Wine. The most popular Georgian Wines are dry red and white wines. The cheapest wine costs 4 EUR and the most expensive is priced at 35 EUR. The most delicious and pleasant drinking among all represented wines in Duty Free is a Georgian wine.” added Cigeroglu.

In the Duty Free area only one flag can be seen: the Georgian one. The Georgian corner takes up 4 square metres and has 4 shelves. Georgian wine is currently competing with Spanish, Italian and French wines also represented in Ataturk International Airport . Among them are the most expensive wines costing 1400 EUR. The companies which want to sell their products in Istanbul Ataturk International Airport are expected to pay between 1 and 15 million EUR per year.

From September 5, 2011 Georgian wine will be sold in Ankara and Izmir International Airport s as well. As well as this, Georgian wine will be represented in Tbilisi and Batumi International Airport s from September 25, 2011. As for the budget of this project, the reconstruction of a new Duty Free shop in Tbilisi International Airport will 230,000 EUR. A minimum of 70,000 EUR worth of products will be placed in the shop.

With Tbilisi and Batumi International Airport s an annual agreement will be made. But in the case of Turkish Airport s the term isn’t restricted. “The agreement is perpetual. There will be a Georgian corner in the Duty Free zone as long as we require it,” said Cigeroglu.

As Tea Zakaradze, Administration Manager of TAV Airport s Holding said, the new Duty Free shop is being built, where 10 Georgian wine companies can sell their wines.

“Beforehand, we cooperated with only Teliani Valley. But as our goal is to popularize Georgian wine the network expansion was necessary. Over 823,000 passengers were registered in Tbilisi International Airport in 2010. This year, we are expecting about a million passengers. Now we are also negotiating with other Airport s operated by us. By the end of December we’ll know in which Airport s Georgian wines will be sold,” said Zakaradze.

Besides Tbilisi , Batumi and Istanbul Ataturk International Airport , TAV Airport s Holding operates another 9 Airport s all over the world. Among them are Ankara, Izmir and Antalya Airport s in Turkey, 2 international Airport s in Tunisia and 2 in Macedonia. Also, TAV Holding has Airport s in Riga and Arabia. Approximately 300 airline companies of TAV Airport s Holding completed 416,000 flights and served about 48 million passengers in 2010.

“Those companies, who will make an agreement with Tbilisi International Airport , would sell their products in our other operating Airport s as well. By this time, only 6 wine companies have been willing to cooperate with us. TAV Holding and the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia offered to all Georgian wine companies their cooperation,” added Zakaradze.

“This is good advertisement for Badagoni Wine and for Georgian Wine. The wines of Badagoni were awarded several medals and honourable diplomas by various national and international companies, so we’ll be representing Georgia properly,” said Liza Bagrationi, PR Manager of Badagoni.

Those companies, who don’t participate in this project, have refrained from making any comments. Some of them say financial problems were the reason and some of them say they weren’t offered the chance to sell their wines in the Duty Free zone.

via The FINANCIAL – Georgian Wine Attracts Thousands of Buyers Daily at Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

September 6, 2011