Fraport confirms bid for Hochtief’s airports

Fraport confirmed it has made a joint bid with Deutsche Bank’s infrastructure investment fund RREEF for a stake in Hochtief’s airport business unit (Dow Jones Newswires/Reuters, 18-Aug-2011). Chairman Stefan Schulte said Fraport was only interested in the international portfolio of the unit, that is, stakes outside of Germany. Hochtief has stakes in Duesseldorf and Hamburg airports. Other stakes include minority holdings in Athens, Budapest, Sydney and Tirana airports.

You may also be interested in the following articles...

• Integration headaches trigger 1Q loss at United as its revenue performance lags the industry
  27-Apr-2012

  Persistently high fuel costs and challenges in a passenger system information technology cutover pushed United Airlines into a loss for 1Q2012 as its unit revenues lagged behind US legacy peers. Forecasts for the month of Apr-2012 show the lacklustre revenue performance continuing before heading into May-2012 when comparisons become increasingly difficult due to numerous fare increases pushed through in 2011. Despite the weak performance relative to the rest of the US airline industry, United remains confident it is taking the right steps through its merger with Continental Airlines to remain competitive over the long term. But for the moment the carrier is not disclosing a timetable of when it might close the unit revenue gap with its industry peers.

  Special charges related to the passenger service system cutover in March and other integration expenses pushed United to a 1Q USD448 million loss compared with a loss of USD213 million the year prior. The cutover was the final step in combining United and Continental, and now that it is complete the Continental name has been retired.

• Qantas-Air Pacific used as proxy fight between Australia and Fiji
  30-Mar-2012

  Qantas and Air Pacific have been caught in a proxy fight between their home countries as Australia condemns the ongoing lack of democracy in Fiji since military leader Frank Bainimarama took control of the island nation last decade. Bainimarama in turn has had the civil aviation ministry pass a decree requiring, amongst other statutes, Fijian airlines to have local citizens comprise two-thirds of the board. Fiji has a 51% stake in Air Pacific while Qantas holds a 46% stake and accounts for four of the nine board seats.

  While it is apparent Qantas will have to relinquish a board seat to comply with the new regulations, the carrier for some years has been seeking to sell its stake – and would surrender all board seats – but Fiji is unwilling to spend the AUD15 million that Qantas' stake is valued at. Fiji is also irritated that Qantas' LCC Jetstar serves Fiji, to Air Pacific's detriment, although Virgin Australia has significantly more capacity.