The Abuja Gateway Consortium, on Monday, emerged the concessionaire for the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and will run it for the next 25 years.
The consortium made up of local and foreign investors was the sole bidder at the financial bid opening in Abuja, won the bid for the sum of $101.1m (about N12.941bn).
The airport is expected to revert to the Federal Government after the 25-year, concessioning period.
The Abuja Gateway Consortium, is a special purpose vehicle established for the acquisition of the airport, and had bid under the name, Nairanet Consortium.
Members of the consortium, include Airport Consulting Vienna, Austria; Gitto Costruzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, Italy; and Nairanet Technologies Limited, Airline Services Limited, A.G. Ferrero and Company Limited, which are Nigerian firms.
The Airports Authority of India, which currently manages 124 airports � nine international, 87 domestic and 28 civilian enclaves at military airfields � is the Airport Operator and Technical Partner in the Consortium.
The consortium had in the first round bid for the concessioning of the airport for $100.70m.
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, who chaired the concessioning in the absence of the dissolved National Council on Privatisation, however, directed the consortium to review upwards, its bid price of $100.70m in order to meet the reserve bid price.
The Chief Executive Officer, Of Airline Services Limited, Mr. Richard Akerele, who led the Abuja Gateway Consortium team to the financial bid opening, announced a reviewed bid price of $101.10m.
He added that the consortium would pay an entry fee of $10m, which is part of the total bid price of $101.1m.
According to the consortium�s technical proposal for the development of the Abuja airport, about $371m is to be invested in the airport.
Out of the $371m, Akerele said the construction of a new international terminal alone would gulp $270m.
He explained �Our mission statement is to develop the airport into a West African hub. We are building a new international terminal because we want to have an international terminal that will link up with the domestic terminal.
�We also plan to upgrade and extend the runway of the airport as well as improve the rescue mission at the airport, among others. Over $50m will be invested within the first five years,� Akerele explained.
Chigbue disclosed that five companies bid for the airport out of which three consortia were pre-qualified for the airport concessioning.
The consortia include: the NIAP consortium comprising Airport Consulting Vienna (Austria), Kiev Airport (Ukraine) and Oteri Holdings (Nigeria); Nigerian-South African Consortium comprising Airports Company of South Africa, Fikile Closed Corporation (South Africa), ABB Nigeria Limited (Nigeria) and Africa Growth Holdings (Nigeria); and Nairanet Consortium.
Some members of the consortia later teamed up with the original winner.
The BPE director-general added that the three bidders had participated in the due diligence and pre-bid conference held in May and June 2006.
The Leader of the International Finance Corporation, which is the BPE adviser on concessioning of airports, Mr. Brian Samuel, said the challenge before the winner of the bid was that of improving the facilities at the domestic airport.
He said that the airport would be handed over to the concessionaire in January 2007.
The Abuja airport was established in 1982 as part of the infrastructural development programme of the Federal Capital Territory. The airport is 100 per cent owned by the Federal Government.