September 5 (SeeNews) - Moldova’s government said it has endorsed a proposal to repeal a 2013 government decision for awarding a 49-year concession of the international airport in the capital Chisinau to Avia Invest.
The decision to repeal the 2013 document was made on grounds that the contract-awarding procedure was carried out by a government that had already resigned ahead of general elections at the time, the cabinet said in a press release on Wednesday.
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The decision does not invalidate the concession contract but enables the government to seek the annulment of the deal in court, local media reported.
"The justice ministry is working on a file with which it will go to court in the next days to request the concession contract to be canceled," prime minister Maia Sandu said in the press release.
Last month, Guernsey, Channel Islands-registered property investment firm NR Investments said it has agreed to acquire 95% of Avia Invest, the operator of Chisinau airport, for an undisclosed sum. The agreement was ratified by representatives of Avia Invest and NR Investments’ sole beneficiary, Nat Rothschild, on August 19.
Operations and management of the airport in Chisinau, the largest and sole international airport in Moldova, were transferred to Avia Invest under a private-public partnership model in November 2013, whereupon a six-year investment programme was unveiled.
Avia Invest, a consortium of Russia's Kolomna Locomotive Works and Khabarovsk Airport, committed in 2013 to invest 250 million euro ($277 million) in the modernization of the airport, according to Moldovan media reports.
Ever since Avia Invest won the 49-year concession for Chisinau International Airport in 2013, there have been suspicions of wrongdoing regarding the transparency of the company's shareholding structure and funding.
In 2015, Moldova's government announced it was considering to terminate the contract with Avia Invest, acting upon recommendation of the country's anti-corruption authority CNA, local media reported at the time.
According to the media reports, CNA was of the opinion that the deal has to be annulled after its investigation found that Avia Invest had not made any investments in the modernization of the airport and some of the airport's profits were channelled to a business held by a local entrepreneur.
Passenger traffic at Chisinau International Airport is expected to surpass 3.0 million this year, after it handled 2.8 million passengers in 2018, a 14.8% cumulative annual increase since 2010, according to data from NR Investments. Currently, 16 airlines are operating at the airport, serving 38 destinations such as London, Dublin, Paris, Istanbul and Moscow.
NR Investments is a Guernsey, Channel Islands registered property investment vehicle formed in 2007, mostly active in Central European property and infrastructure investments. The company said its prior investments include Porto Montenegro, an award-winning super yacht marina; Trigranit, Central Europe’s largest real estate developer; the Korda Studios film complex in Budapest, Hungary, as well as multiple stand-alone developments in the region.
($=0.9054 euro)