Russia’s Basic Element and Singapore’s Changi Airports International (CAI) – the overseas investment arm of Singapore’s Civil Aviation Authority – will bid together as a consortium for the development and operation of St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.
The Pulkovo Airport development is the first airport public private partnership (PPP) project in Russia. The project involves the upgrade and operation of the existing airport while a new terminal will be developed, CAI said.
Passenger traffic at Pulkovo Airport was 6.1 million in 2007 and is expected to hit 17 million in ten-year’s time, the companies said.
“Pulkovo Airport has been on our radar screen for some time and it will be one of the landmark projects in the industry over the next few years,” Chow Kok Fong, CEO of CAI said.
Basic Element – the industrial holding of Russia”s richest man Oleg Deripaska – has over US$23 billion in assets.
All consortia will undergo a pre-qualification process, with the submission of final bids expected in February 2009 and an ultimate decision expected by July 2009.