As an independent private airport investor and operator, AviAlliance works passionately to make airports around the world into attractive, state-of-the-art centres of transportation and focal points of the economy. Holger Linkweiler and Gerhard Schroeder, Managing Directors, spoke to Marta Dimitrova.
AviAlliance’s Managing Directors, Holger Linkweiler and Gerhard Schroeder, are looking at expanding globally. “We are positive about the continued development of our existing airport portfolio, and we have plans to expand into other regions, including Asia, South America and even North America.”
This year, AviAlliance celebrates its 20th anniversary. Since it was founded in 1997 under its then name HOCHTIEF AirPort, the company has established itself as one of the world’s leading private airport managers. Today, AviAlliance has created an attractive and balanced portfolio with shareholdings in the airports of Athens, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and San Juan.
“In the first half of 2017, our five airports performed very well,” comments Gerhard Schroeder, Managing Director, AviAlliance. “The number of passengers going through the airports of Athens, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and San Juan totalled 40.2 million – an increase of more than 9% compared with the first six months of 2016.”
In July, AviAlliance successfully signed amended and restated financing documents with Budapest Airport. “We are very pleased with the strong interest of the market and happy that we were able to secure long-term financing for the airport with very attractive terms,” says Schroeder.
Financial investors and banks showed a strong interest in lending to Budapest Airport – the debt was strongly oversubscribed. This was driven by the strong passenger traffic increase during the past years combined with the overall improved performance of the airport, the significantly decreased leverage and an improved Hungarian sovereign credit rating.
The debt facilities sum up to €1.4 billion with longer tenors than before, now split into tranches of 5, 10 and 15 years. In addition to savings on the already existing banking tranche, with margins in the range of recent western European transactions, the airport also redeemed its expensive mezzanine facility.
The refinancing’s success owes much to strong passenger traffic increase during the past years combined with the overall improved performance of the airport, the significantly decreased leverage and an improved Hungarian sovereign credit rating.
AviAlliance is not only the majority shareholder, it is also the industrial leader of the consortium, and has concluded a long-running strategic consultancy agreement with the airport.
Just a few weeks after the takeover, the AviAlliance consortium initiated a massive investment programme, ‘BUD Future’, with the goal of expanding the capacities of the existing facilities, optimising the airport’s infrastructure and opening up new fields of business. The go-ahead for BUD Future brought the start of construction work on ‘SkyCourt’, which forms the most prominent feature of the modernisation programme. Inaugurated in March 2011, it connects Terminal 2A and 2B and their gates, thus bringing all passengers streams together and permitting flexible use of the two terminals in order to cope better with peak loads, for instance, at the security controls. SkyCourt also doubled retail space at the airport.
Key investment criteria
“Airports which have not yet tapped into their potential to the full and thus offer important scope for development, are our main target,” explains Holger Linkweiler, Managing Director, AviAlliance.
Some of the key points of the company’s criteria for investment in airports include good growth potential, attractive catchment area, scope for infrastructure expansion and space optimisation, potential for non-aviation business, and the possibility to enhance operational and business performance.
Contributing to the business and operational development of the airports in its portfolio and providing active support for the individual managements form key pillars of AviAlliance’s endeavours. Another pillar is expanding the portfolio and acquiring an interest in airports all over the world. AviAlliance has now achieved its first success in America with a 40% stake in Aerostar Airport Holdings, which operates the airport of San Juan in Puerto Rico – the biggest and busiest airport in the Caribbean.
Looking ahead, AviAlliance is targeting further global expansion. “We are positive about the continued development of our existing airport portfolio, and we have plans to expand into other regions, including Asia, South America and even North America,” Linkweiler concludes.
