Arkady Rotenberg has gotten into the Northern area. Sheremetyevo has chosen a new investor

Arkady Rotenberg’s TPS Avia became the key private investor of the Sheremetyevo airport. It won the tender on development of the Northern area of the airport (former Sheremetyevo-1 and neighboring terminals), even though it offered almost three times less investments than the competitor “Koltsovo Airport” OJSC (a structure of Victor Vekselberg’s “Renova”). The point is that the winner only claims the shares in the new JVs within the Northern area itself, and the losing competitor – to almost the entire airport. But in the case of TPS, the outcome may be the same, now the company is seen as the main aspirant to the state-owned stock of Sheremetyevo.

Mikhail Vasilenko, General Director of Sheremetyevo International Airport OJSC, declared yesterday that TPS Avia Group of Arkady Rotenberg, Alexander Ponomarenko and Alexander Skorobogatko was the winner of the tender of investors for the project of development of the Northern area of the airport. According to the top manager, the company offered investing of $635 million in own funds to the construction of a new terminal B with the capacity of 15 million passengers per year, a cargo terminal, the third fuel filling complex (FFC) together with LUKOIL and the tunnel connecting the Northern and the Southern (terminals D, E and F) of the airport.

A representative of TPS told Kommersant that all objects are planned to be put into operation in 2017 and expected to reach breakeven point within 9 or 10 years. According to him, the new FFC is needed, since “taking into account the projection of development of the passenger flow (with the development plan for the Northern terminal complex under the TPS Avia concept), the current capacity of the existing FFC will suffice until 2015”. TPS say that Sheremetyevo will suffer from the lack of air fuel supply, which may reach 1 million tons by 2020, unless a new FFC is installed.

According to Mr. Vasilenko, the SIA and TPS will establish joint ventures, the shares in which “remain to be calculated”, for the projects. TPS explained: “The SIA will contribute with the leasing rights to land plots and with engineering networks. The property and the property rights contributed will be evaluated at their market value, which will determine the share of the SIA”. M.Vasolenko said that the intentions agreement will be signed with TPS within one month, subject to approval by the Rosimuschestvo by the end of the year.

TPS Avia and its co-owners have already begun operations in Sheremetyevo. The company controls the parking of the airport and V.I.P. International CJSC – the exclusive operator of VIP lounges. SIA Advertising LLC of Alexander Ponomarenko has been selling advertising in the terminal D since 2013. TPS bought from Interros and Kratos their shares of the cargo complex of the airport and the controlling stock in the project of construction of the new cargo terminal last June.

Prior to the privatization of the SIA, the State is planning to unite all assets of the airport, so that TPS Avia may soon become a shareholder of the SIA and is considered the main aspirant to the purchase of the state-owned stock. However, according to Mr. Vasilenko, the matters of the property structure of the SIA or the future privatization were not discussed during the tender.

The SIA declared the tender on investors on August 16. Besides TPS, Victor Vekselberg’s Koltsovo Airport OJSC, Oleg Deripaska’s Transstroy, VTB Capital, Aeroexpress and Tolmachevo Airport OJSC (a member of Roman Trotsenko’s Novaport) expressed their interest. Aeroexpress was not allowed to take part, VTB Capital and Transstroy refused to participate, and Tolmachevo’s claim was too late. Only Koltsovo competed against TPS, and the tender was postponed several times upon the former’s request.

Mikhail Vasilenko informed that Koltsfovo’s suggestion regarding the project was completely different. The company suggested creation of a venture with the borrowed capital of 1,8 billion euros, assign the entire Shremetyevo airport to a concession or exchange its shares for infrastructure. The company had plans of expansion of the terminal D capacityby 5 million persons per year (actual capacity at this moment is of 16 million, and the nominal one – 12 million). Construction of a terminal for 7 million passengers per year was suggested in the Northern area. Construction of an underground tunnel between the airport areas was scheduled for after 2020. M.Vasilenko pointed out that the project would have caused an increase in the price of the services for air carriers and passengers too.

Mr.Vasilenko said that a number of criteria were employed in order to determine the winner. Those included the attractiveness and detailedness of the concept, and the experience of implementation of transport infrastructure objects was also taken into account. Representatives of Koltsovo and Renova refused comments on the outcome of the tender. Partner of the Law Firm "YUST" Alexander Bolomatov believes that Sheremetyevo preferred the cheaper claim by TPS as the higher the investments the longer it takes for the project to reach the breakeven point.

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