The Bangalore-based GMR Group has filed an ‘Expression of Interest’ (EoI) for Madrid airport. The Spanish government has authorised the sale of 90.05 per cent stake in the airports at Madrid and Barcelona, to be run through a special purpose vehicle.
The successful bidders also have to pay an annual fee, of a fifth of the airport’s revenue. The management contracts for Madrid and Barcelona will be for 20 years and can be extended by five more.
“We have shown an EoI on the Request for Qualification for the Madrid airport,” said a GMR spokesperson. Barce-lona’s El Prat airport handles 125 million passengers annually and Madrid’s Barajas can handle around 70 million a year. The base price for the bidding has been fixed at $5.2 billion for Madrid. Madrid is the fourth busiest airport in Europe and the 11th busiest in the world. It had 49 million passengers in 2010.
Globally, the GMR group has built and is operating the revamped Istanbul airport and also building ane airport in Male (Maldives). In India, it has built and operates the Delhi and Hyderabad airports. GMR shot into the limelight after it tied up a consortium to build Delhi airport’s Terminal-3, which has a capacity to handle 34 million passengers a year.
The group is in talks with the Indonesian government for some airport projects. The latter had announced a plan to develop 14 new airports in the country. It is also in discussion with the authorities in Kenya and Tanzania, which are also looking at setting up new airports.
The Kenyan government is planning to set up a new international airport at Taveta, on the border with Tanzania.
