Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport) has signed an agreement today (6 August) to sell its 30 per cent stake in Flughafen Hannover-Langenhagen GmbH (FHLG) to iCON Flughafen GmbH (iCON) – for €109.2 million.
FHLG is the operating company of Hanover Airport (HAJ) in northern Germany and iCON is part of the iCON Infrastructure Group. Tonnage has fallen over the last few years, where as passenger traffic has climbed.
The closing of the transaction is dependent on the contractually agreed pre-emption rights held by the two co-shareholders. Fraport currently expects the transaction to be concluded during the next two months.
HAJ handled 8,815 tonnes of cargo in the first half of the year, a 0.6 per cent decline on the same period last year. In 2017 it processed 16,861 tonnes of cargo, a fall on the 2016 figure.
For the first six months of 2018, HAJ achieved a 7.8 per cent increase in passenger traffic to almost 2.8 million passengers and in 2017, traffic rose by 8.5 per cent to 5.9 million passengers.
Fraport executive board chairman, Stefan Schulte said: “For some time, we have received strong interest from the market for Fraport to sell its stake in Hanover Airport. This underscores Fraport’s competence in increasing the value of our airport investments, wherever we operate around the world.
“We achieve this by enhancing operations, infrastructure, and the customer experience. At the same time, we are pursuing the goal to acquire majority stakes in airports or to hold a position of significant influence in these airport companies.”
Schulte added: “Hanover Airport is a solid business with a bright future. It has developed into an important aviation gateway in northern Germany for both passenger and cargo traffic. We would like to thank the other FHLG shareholders and the Hanover region for the excellent cooperation, and we wish them continuing success.
Fraport acquired shares in FHLG in two steps: initially 20 per cent in 1998, followed by another 10 per cent in 2003. The other 70 percent of FHLG is held equally by two co-shareholders: the City of Hanover and the Hannoversche Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH – a wholly-owned company belonging to the State of Lower Saxony.
