Changi Airport makes fresh attempt to enter India

Mumbai: After several false starts, Singapore’s Changi Airport is making a fresh bid to get a firm foothold in India, which has eluded it for many years.
Changi Airports International (CAI), an arm of the Changi Airport Group, which runs the Singapore airport, is said to be in talks with Hyderabad-based GVK Group to acquire a stake in its lucrative airport business. GVK operates two of India’s busiest airports in Mumbai and Bangalore.
If the deal goes through, the Changi-GVK combine will handle over 40 million passengers a year, making it the biggest player in India’s airports market. Bangalore-based GMR Group, which operates the Delhi and Hyderabad airports, handles 37 million passengers a year. However, the alliance will have less capacity in India compared to GMR’s. GVK can handle 51 million passengers a year, while GMR has a capacity to handle 72 million per annum. The Bangalore and Mumbai airports are collectively valued at close to Rs 13,000 crore at recent deal prices.
Changi has been looking to enter India for a while. It tied up with Bharti Group’s Sunil Mittal to bid for the Delhi airport privatisation, but got cold feet in the last moment and dropped out of the race, according to people in the know. It tied up with Tata Realty Infrastructure (Tatas had 51 per cent and the rest was with Changi) to bid for airport projects in India, especially in non-metros. It also made a bid few months ago to acquire Siemens’ 14 per cent stake in the Bangalore airport. But GVK matched the offer and bought the stake.
27/12/11 Business Standard

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Categories: airports Dec 2011