Cochin airport seeks foreign partner

Mumbai: India’s Cochin International Airport is seeking a foreign partner to take a stake worth at least Rs25bn ($616m) in what would be a rare chance to take part in the country’s fast-growing aviation industry.
India’s fourth largest international airport, which began life a decade ago with contributions from southern Indians working in the Gulf, is considering the sale of about 25 per cent of the company to an outside investor.
“We’d prefer a tie-up with someone who’s got experience in aviation and who can help us expand in the aviation sector,” S. Bharath, the airport’s managing director, told the Financial Times.
The Cochin (Kochi) facility, which serves the southern state of Kerala, was one of the first Indian airports to be built largely with private-sector funds. The government of Kerala owns 36 per cent.
Mr Bharath said he had yet to begin marketing the stake to investors, though the airport had received a number of more general expressions of interest from foreign institutions.
He said these included Deutsche Bank. The German bank declined to comment.
08/06/07 Joe Leahy/Financial Times, UK

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Categories: Airports Jun 2007, Foreign Jun 2007, New Jun 2007