VINCI Airports completes financing for Belgrade airport concession and takes over operations

21 December 2018 - 7:00 pm - Acquisitions - Serbia

· Concession financing finalised
· Loans amounting to €420 million from European and international financing institutions
· A 25-year concession beginning on 22 December 2018
· VINCI Airports takes over operations today

VINCI Airports has satisfied all the conditions precedent in the contract and is officially taking over the concession at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade.

VINCI Airports signed a 25-year concession contract covering the airport’s financing, operation, maintenance, extension and upgrade, and stating the conditions it has since satisfied, on 22 March last.

To complete this transaction, VINCI Airports has raised loans amounting to a total of €420 million and maturing over a maximum of 17 years from 4 multilateral institutions – IFC (a member of the World Bank Group), EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), Agence Française de Développement (via its subsidiary Proparco) and DEG (KfW Group) – and from 6 merchant banks (UniCredit, Intesa, Erste, Société Générale, Kommunalkredit and CIC).

The loans will complement the equity that VINCI Airports is investing in the operation and cover the €501 million upfront concession fee paid to the granting authority as well as the airport extension and upgrade works provided in the contract.

These financing arrangements constitute a milestone in Belgrade airport’s development, and one of the largest financial transactions ever carried out in Serbia.

When it officially takes over operations this 22 December, VINCI Airports will be in a position to harness the expertise it has built as a world-class operator to grow Serbia’s main airport into a major hub for south-eastern Europe (it catered to 5.3 million passengers in 2017) and to drive its development.

 

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About VINCI Airports
VINCI Airports, a top 5 global player in the international airport sector, manages the development and operation of 45 airports located in France, Portugal (including the Lisbon hub), United Kingdom, Sweden, Serbia, Cambodia, Japan, United States, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Chile and Brazil. Served by over 250 airlines, VINCI Airports' network handled more than 180 million passengers in 2017. Through its expertise as a comprehensive integrator and the professionalism of its 12,000 employees, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and operates airports, leveraging its investment capability, international network and know-how to optimise the management and performance of existing airport infrastructure, facility extensions and new-build construction projects. www.vinci-airports.com

 

About VINCI
VINCI is a global player in concessions, energy and construction, employing 280,000 people in more than 120 countries. We design, finance, build and operate infrastructure and facilities that help improve daily life and mobility for all. Because we believe in all-round performance, we are committed to operating in an environmentally, socially responsible and ethical manner. And because our projects are in the public interest, we consider that reaching out to all our stakeholders and engaging in dialogue with them is essential in the conduct of our business activities. Based on that approach, VINCI’s ambition is to create long-term value for its customers, shareholders, employees, partners and society in general.