German, UK, Turkish firms jostle for Lagos, Abuja airports

Turkey’s biggest airport operator, TAV Havalimanlari Holding AS, is planning to bid for concession contracts for four airports in Nigeria, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

This came just as the Ministry of Aviation confirmed on Wednesday that companies from the United Kingdom, Germany and Nigeria had submitted bids to operate the airports.

The airports are the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; and Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers.

The Istanbul-based company, majority owned by Aeroports de Paris, has already submitted a non-binding bid for the airports, which include the MMIA and NAIA, according to a Bloomberg report, quoting people close to the development, who asked not to be named because the plan is not public.

One of the sources said the company was also considering capital expenditures in some of the four airports if it won the contract.

“I know TAV has made a presentation, but I can’t confirm at this moment if they formally submitted any offer,” a spokesman at the Ministry of Aviation, James Odaudu, told Bloomberg by telephone on Wednesday.

Odaudu said companies from the UK, Germany and Nigeria had also expressed interest in operating the four airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.

Transaction consultants will advise on the timing for formal bidding as well as on a plan to start a national carrier, Odaudu stated.

TAV operates more than a dozen airports, including Turkey’s largest, Istanbul Ataturk. It is seeking to add more airports abroad to its portfolio to compensate for the termination of the concession agreement for Ataturk, its biggest revenue earner, at the end of 2020.