Osaka airport tender: Orix, French partner place sole bid for 2.2tn yen contract

Osaka airport tender: Orix, French partner place sole bid for 2.2tn yen contract

OSAKA — Japanese financial services group Orix and French company Vinci Airports placed the only bid in the final round of a tender to choose a new operator for two Osaka-area airports.

     That makes the Franco-Japanese alliance the winner by default. Their bid must still be approved by Japan’s transport ministry. That is expected to happen in November, with the operating rights changing hands next March. The current operator, New Kansai International Airport Co., conducted the tender.

     The roughly 44-year contract to run Kansai Airport, the main hub for the Osaka area, and the smaller Osaka International Airport, better known as Itami, is worth some 2.2 trillion yen ($18.3 billion).

     If approved, Orix and Vinci would form an operating company as early as December. Each would take a 40% stake in the venture, with the rest held by other investors, including Panasonic and Hankyu Hanshin Holdings.

     Under an Orix-Vinci plan seen by financial institutions and others, annual passenger traffic at Kansai Airport is projected to rise 120% to about 43 million from fiscal 2014 to the final year of the operating contract — sometime around 2060. Passengers on international flights are seen increasing from 13.5 million to about 29 million, with big gains in foreigners. At Itami, which offers only domestic flights, passenger traffic is projected at a nearly flat figure of just under 15 million.

     Orix and Vinci forecast their airport venture to earn a roughly 90 billion yen operating profit on revenue of 300 billion yen — about double the airports’ results for last fiscal year by either measure.

(Nikkei)

Osaka airport tender: Orix, French partner place sole bid for 2.2tn yen contract