Changi (Singapore) eyeing stake in Amritsar Airport

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Changi eyeing stake in Indian airports, including Amritsar

Changi Airports International Pte, the overseas investment unit of Singapore's main airport operator, plans to buy stakes in as many as 15 airfields, about half in China, Chief Executive Officer Chow Kok Fong said.
Chow wants to tap growth in the Middle East, China and India, where governments are upgrading airports as rising incomes enable more people to fly.


Airports are benefiting from deregulation and a surge in travel as budget airlines lure more tourists.


The sheikdom of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has earmarked $82 billion to create a transport hub for the Persian Gulf. India is selling stakes in its biggest airfields to help pay for $10 billion in investments over seven years to support travel growth in the world's second-most populous country.


Changi Airports, which in 2005 pulled out of a race for a stake in India's New Delhi airport, has teamed up with the Tata Group to bid for other projects in the South Asian nation.


``We are looking, together with Tata, at some of the equivalent of secondary airports in India,'' Chow said. ``One of the airports that has been announced for privatization is Amritsar. That's one airport we're looking at.''


Changi Airports faces competition for assets from companies including Fraport AG and Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd.


Fraport, owner of Frankfurt airport, bought a stake in China's Xian airport last year and raised its holding in the operating company of Lima airport in Peru. It runs two terminals at Antalya, Turkey, and has a contract to operate all three of its terminals by September 2009. It has also invested in India.
03/01/08 Chan Sue Ling/Bloomberg
Bloomberg.com: India & Pakistan
 
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