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FRENCH AIRPORT OPERATOR ADP BUYS STAKE IN TURKEY'S TAV
Agence France Presse
March 12, 2012 Monday 3:17 PM GMT
French airport operator Aeroports de Paris said Monday it has acquired
38 percent of the leading Turkish operator TAV, which runs Ataturk
airport in Istanbul.
ADP said it would pay 874 million dollars (667 million euros) for the
holding, which values the Turkish company at 2.3 billion dollars and is
part of the French group's strategy to expand into emerging economies.
ADP said it paid a 32 percent premium on TAV's share price, but that
would bring double-digit returns as TAV provided a means to expand
into fast growing emerging markets
TAV operates 10 airports in all: elsewhere in Turkey plus in Georgia,
Macedonia, and Tunisia. It will soon add an airport in Saudia Arabia
and runs food and duty free shop operations at a Latvian airport.
The two groups run directly or indirectly a total of 37 airports
worldwide that welcome around 180 million passengers a year.
ADP chief executive said the investment into TAV gives it a stake in
airports which are expanding at over 10 percent a year and that the
deal would bring "a double-digit return on investment."
"It is an extremely productive placement of money," he told AFP by
telephone from Istanbul.
"TAV, which is extremely well managed, has a strategy which we won't
change which is to grow by acquisitions, in their zone of influence
of course -- they are better placed in eastern Europe and the Middle
East," Graff said.
ADP has in recent years focused buying stakes in airports that handle
more than 10 million passengers a year, and particularly those in
countries like Brazil, China, India and Russia.
TAV board chairman Hamdi Akin said the tie-up would help bring funds
for further expansion.
"I am convinced that it will end up being a tie-up that is strong
both in the economic and political sphere," he was quoted as saying
at a news conference in Istanbul by the Anatolia news agency.
The deal was announced amid tension between Paris and Ankara after
French lawmakers voted to introduce legislation that would make it
a crime to deny the Armenian genocide.
France's top court last month ruled that the legislation was
unconstitutional but French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is facing
a tough re-election battle next month, has vowed to put forward a
new bill.
From: Baghdasarian
Agence France Presse
March 12, 2012 Monday 3:17 PM GMT
French airport operator Aeroports de Paris said Monday it has acquired
38 percent of the leading Turkish operator TAV, which runs Ataturk
airport in Istanbul.
ADP said it would pay 874 million dollars (667 million euros) for the
holding, which values the Turkish company at 2.3 billion dollars and is
part of the French group's strategy to expand into emerging economies.
ADP said it paid a 32 percent premium on TAV's share price, but that
would bring double-digit returns as TAV provided a means to expand
into fast growing emerging markets
TAV operates 10 airports in all: elsewhere in Turkey plus in Georgia,
Macedonia, and Tunisia. It will soon add an airport in Saudia Arabia
and runs food and duty free shop operations at a Latvian airport.
The two groups run directly or indirectly a total of 37 airports
worldwide that welcome around 180 million passengers a year.
ADP chief executive said the investment into TAV gives it a stake in
airports which are expanding at over 10 percent a year and that the
deal would bring "a double-digit return on investment."
"It is an extremely productive placement of money," he told AFP by
telephone from Istanbul.
"TAV, which is extremely well managed, has a strategy which we won't
change which is to grow by acquisitions, in their zone of influence
of course -- they are better placed in eastern Europe and the Middle
East," Graff said.
ADP has in recent years focused buying stakes in airports that handle
more than 10 million passengers a year, and particularly those in
countries like Brazil, China, India and Russia.
TAV board chairman Hamdi Akin said the tie-up would help bring funds
for further expansion.
"I am convinced that it will end up being a tie-up that is strong
both in the economic and political sphere," he was quoted as saying
at a news conference in Istanbul by the Anatolia news agency.
The deal was announced amid tension between Paris and Ankara after
French lawmakers voted to introduce legislation that would make it
a crime to deny the Armenian genocide.
France's top court last month ruled that the legislation was
unconstitutional but French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is facing
a tough re-election battle next month, has vowed to put forward a
new bill.
From: Baghdasarian