ISAP Consortium will appeal if TwoOne wins airport tender

The possible exclusion of the TwoOne consortium and the resultant reduction in the number of bidders for the privatisation of Bratislava and Kosice airports would not lead to the remaining bidders lowering their own bids, according to the Independent Slovak Airport Partners consortium, which is itself one of the bidders. This statement was made on Monday by the General Director of GalaxyS Fund, one of the ISAP consortium members. On Friday it was reported that the European Commission intends to monitor the privatisation of the two airports, as the way the tender is being carried out is unusual by EU standards.

The consortium Independent Slovak Airport Partners said they would ask the European Commission to examine the tender for privatization of Slovakia's two largest airports in Bratislava and Kosice if the consortium TwoOne wins the competition. However, the ISAP consortium believes the Slovak government and the privatization commission will pay appropriate attention to the possibility that a monopoly could be created. Respective organs have to realize that privatization of Slovak airports is not only a matter of Slovakia, but concerns the whole Europe, said the Galaxy director general.

The steering committee for the privatization of two largest Slovak airports shifted the deadline for submitting final bids for a 66-percent equity stake in the Bratislava and Kosice airports from November 21 to early December. The reason was that not all bidders managed to submit all of the necessary documents and statements by the November 21 deadline. The official list of short-listed bidders currently contains a consortium formed by Spanish company Abertis, British TBI airport operator and the Slovak financial group J&T. Also the TwoOne consortium was shortlisted, consisting of Flughafen Wien airport operator, private equity group Penta and Austrian bank Raiffeisen Zentralbank. Next in line is the Independent Slovak Airport Partners (ISAP) consortium uniting German airport company Koln-Bonn Airport, Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin International, Austrian advisory firm Airport Consulting Vienna and infrastructure fund GalaxyS. Turkish construction and airport operator firm Tepe Akfen Ventures is also on the shortlist. The winner of the international tender should be known by the end of the year.