Private investment being courted for Berlin’s new airport

Although its opening has been postponed several times, and with a current opening date now scheduled for 2017, the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag has reported that such weighty investors as JP Morgan and Macquarie have been courted by Berlin to take a stake in the new airport. The newspaper report states that investors will be given confidential details relating to the airport’s business plans in order to make concrete offers, though it would not name its sources.
A spokesman for the airport however indicated that there had been now new developments regarding a possible part privatisation of the airport, stating that the company, FBB (Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg), was currently in a “pre-notification phase” with the European Commission, whereby it must clearly show the potential return on investment for any private investors. The spokesman subsequently referred to a June 18 statement where the airport said: “This does not, however, prejudge whether should be privatised, either in whole or in part.” The spokesman refused to comment specifically on “speculation” as to whether any particular potential investors had been contacted or not.
The EUR€5.1 billion (USD$5.7 billion) airport is presently jointly owned by the city of Berlin, the state of Brandenburg and Germany’s federal government. However Bild did say that a comprehensive report was expected by the owners at the end of the year as to whether part-privatization was feasible, making it also clear that once operational, the federal government would look to offload its 26% stake.