HOCHTIEF AirPort Preferred Bidder for Albanian airport

HOCHTIEF AirPort, together with two financial partners, has been named Preferred Bidder for the Mother Teresa Airport in Tirana, capital of Albania. Given a positive conclusion to the final negotiations, the consortium led by HOCHTIEF AirPort will operate the airport for the next twenty years. The concession is the first successful total privatization of an airport in this region.

In addition to HOCHTIEF AirPort, the winning consortium includes Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) and Albanian American Enterprise Fund (AAEF), a company founded by the US government to support the development of the private sector in Albania.

In the consortium, HOCHTIEF AirPort is not only leader but also sole industrial partner. “With the concession to operate the Albanian capital’s airport, we have once again achieved our strategic goal to market first and foremost our expertise”, says Dr. Reinhard Kalenda, CEO of HOCHTIEF AirPort, commenting on the planned entry into Albania. “We are convinced that this privatization model will be trail-blazing.”

On taking over the airport, which is at present used by around half a million passengers a year, “Airport Partners Albania” will receive all operating revenues in return for a commitment to undertake modernization. It will also pay an annual concession fee. Both sides agreed to maintain confidentiality for the time being on the scale of this fee and the future shareholdings.

HOCHTIEF AirPort, a subsidiary of the international construction services group HOCHTIEF, is one of the biggest independent airport managers in the world. The company holds stakes in the airports of Athens, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Sydney and in Transport & Logistics Consultancy of the UK.