Corporación América Airports is preferred bidder for Nigerian airport concessions

Global airport operator, Corporación América Airports (CAAP), is set to enter the African market for the first time after its consortium was named as the preferred bidder to operate Abuja and Kano airports and their respective cargo terminals in Nigeria.

CAAP holds a controlling 51% stake in the consortium alongside partners Mota-Engil, Engenharia e Construção África S.A., and Mota-Engil Nigeria Limited.

The Nigerian government’s decision to select the CAAP-led consortium as the winning bidder officially initiates the next step in the process during which the Consortium and the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the Federal Airports Authority will together revise and negotiate the final terms and conditions of the concession agreements.

Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport – Abuja

– 20-year concession agreement.
– Operates a single runway of 3,600m.
– Abuja: Nigeria’s Capital city.

Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport – Kano

– 30-year concession agreement.
– Two runways of 2,451 m and 3,300 m.
– Kano: Nigeria’s second largest city.

Martin Eurnekian, CEO of Corporación América Airports, commented: “After a careful and detailed tender process, through which the Government of Nigeria evaluated all the proposals, we were declared preferred bidders for operating Abuja and Kano airports and cargo terminals in Nigeria, together with Mota-Engil, Engenharia e Construção África S.A., and Mota-Engil Nigeria Limited, our qualified and well-respected partners in this ambitious project.

“With this important announcement, we now enter a phase in which we will discuss and negotiate with Nigerian authorities the final terms of the concession agreements. Provided we are granted with the concessions, we would further expand our portfolio to 55 airports, across seven countries in four different continents.”

CAAP’s extensive global airport portfolio includes 37 gateways in Argentina, 35 of which are courtesy of its 81.3% stake in Aeropuertos Argentina (AA2000).

Elsewhere in Latin America it operates Montevideo–Carrasco and Laguna del Sauce-Punta del Este airports in Uruguay due to of its 100% ownership of operator; Puerta del Sur, has controlling 51% stake in Brasilia’s Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport (where state owned Infraero is the only other shareholder); and through ICASGA a 100% interest in the Natal’s São Gonçalo do Amarante–Governador Aluízio Alves International Airport in Rio Grande de Norte state, where it has a 25-year concession.

It also holds interests in airports in Armenia, Ecuador, Peru, Italy.