German Fraport Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport) and its consortium partners at Russia’s Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg have finalised an agreement to sell part of their shares in Thalita Trading to Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).

Thalita is the parent company of Northern Capital Gateway LLC consortium, which has the 30-year concession for operating Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Fraport will be reducing its stake in Thalita by 10.5 percent from 35.5 percent to 25 percent.

Based on the current book value, Fraport expects profit from the transaction to range between 30 and 40 million euros.

Decreasing its shareholding will not affect Fraport’s role as ‘airport operator’ in the consortium. It is planned that QIA will also be able to acquire shares from the other consortial partners for a total stake of 24.99 percent in Thalita.

Stefan Schulte, executive board chairman, Fraport AG, stated, “Pulkovo Airport has developed well since the operating concession started. In selling part of our stake, we are realising value enhancement while maintaining our role in the consortium. Despite the current difficulties in Russia, we continue to regard this as an attractive market.”Since the Northern Capital Gateway consortium started operations, passenger traffic at LED has risen from 8.4 million in 2010 to 13.5 million in 2015. Pulkovo Airport has also been receiving more new airlines and routes in recent months.