New tender announced for Plovdiv Airport concession

On 27 February 2020, the Bulgarian government approved the decision of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications to re-start the tender for the Plovdiv Airport concession: specifically, for the construction on public state property of a “civil airport for public use Plovdiv”.

The news was announced by Transport Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.

The procedure is expected to begin in the following months and will be similar to the tender for Sofia Airport in that it will contain comprehensive information and will be organised in a transparent procedure via a special webpage showing questions of potential investors.

Under the new procedure, the term of the concession will be 35 years, including construction.

The requirements for participants include:

• practical experience (within the last five years) in developing and administering airports with passenger turnover of over 450,000 people annually;
• registered capital of at least BGN 1 million and proven long-term assets of BGN 40 million;
• financing of at least one project over BGN 10 million during the last ten years.

The airport must have a logistics centre.

Details and terms on the procedure are not yet available yet, but should be announced in the coming days by the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications.

As an advisor for a participant in the previous Plovdid Airport concession procedure, CMS expects serious investor interest in the new procedure given the successful tender for Sofia Airport.

For more information on the restart of this tender, contact your usual CMS source or one of the following local CMS experts: Kostadin Sirleshtov and Raya Maneva.

Our previous Law-Now article on this issue can be found here.