French company Vinci Airports today officially marked the beginning of its business in Serbia, as well as the start of a 25-year concession contract for Belgrade Airport.
Vinci Airports president Nicolas Notebaert reminded that the concession began on December 22, after the company provided an upfront payment of EUR 501 mln to the granting authority, but that such a project requires a special day just for celebration.
The EUR 501 mln upfront payment was largely financed through loans totaling EUR 420 mln and maturing over a maximum of 17 years from four multilateral institutions –IFC (a member of the World Bank Group), EBRD, Agence Francaise de Developpement (via its subsidiary Proparco) and DEG (KfW Group) – and from six merchant banks (UniCredit, Intesa, Erste, Societe Generale, Kommunalkredit and CIC).
Vinci Airports today pledged to invest another EUR 730 mln in expanding Serbia’s main airport into a major hub for Southeast Europe and tripling the number of passengers from 5.3 million in 2017 to 15 million by the end of the concession contract.