The first meeting of a working group of the Investment Coordination Council of the Russian Ministry of Transport responsible for extending the experience of Moscow Air Cluster to regional airports was held on November 27th 2014. The meeting was chaired by Albert Eganyan, partner of Vegas Lex law firm, Chairman of the Board of InfraONE. Decision to establish the working group was made in July 2014 following the results of the first meeting of the Coordination Council, press-service of Vegas Lex reports.
Two key issues were discussed at the meeting: concession - resource for raising investment for development of regional airports; preliminary discussion of strategic and practical aspects of regional hubs’ development.
“According to members of the group, projected amount of non-budgetary investments in development of regional airports for the period until 2030 will reach 1.4 billion rubles. Budget financing deficit will be about 30% (without taking into account the potential decline of macroeconomic indicators in the near term). Therefore, regional airports will be facing a severe need for private investments,” the press-service added.
In the network of the meeting the parties discussed the key prerequisites for using the concession model in the Moscow Air Cluster as well as the advantages the concession can give in the network of the current airport development model based on lease agreements. The experience of structuring the MAC airports shows that concession can ensure long-term investment support for the airfield and air terminal infrastructure development, increasing the capitalization of a private investor’s assets, and help lower the cost of non-budgetary financing.
Issuing bonds of a specialized project finance company was considered as one of the most promising non-government investment instruments. In the network of a concession they may be used together with government financing instruments, for instance, capital grants, subsidized bank interests and long-term tariff regulation, the press-service explained.
