OREANDA-NEWS. The project outlining the reconstruction and development of Pulkovo Airport won the annual national competition for the national Development Prize founded by Vnesheconombank (VEB). The St. Petersburg Airport won the nomination for “Best Project with Foreign Investments”.

The prize was awarded at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 19th, 2015.

“We would like to thank the competition’s panel of judges for recognizing the Pulkovo Airport Development Project as the best project with foreign investments. We consider this to be an independent and qualified assessment of five years of our joint work with Northern Capital Gateway LLC and our Russian and foreign partners towards the implementation of the present large-scale infrastructural project, which presents a considerable social, economic and budgetary effect”

Northern Capital Gateway LLC is an international consortium involving the participation of VTB Capital (57.5% of shares); Fraport AG, the leading international airport operation company with headquarters in Frankfurt-am-Main (35.5% of shares); and the Copelouzos Group, a Greek investment company (7% of shares). The Consortium has been operating Pulkovo Airport since 2010, and is working on its reconstruction and development in accordance with a public-private partnership agreement between the administration of St. Petersburg, OJSC Pulkovo Airport, and Northern Capital Gateway LLC.

The first stage of the project was completed in 2010-2014 without having attracted any budgetary financial support. The total amount of investments totals €1.2 billion. Forty percent of this amount came from the shareholders’ or money generated by the consortium and invested into the project during the implementation stage. The remaining sum was gained in the form of long-term credit from various international financial institutions, including VEB. The first stage of the project included forming a new centralized passenger terminal and reconstruction of the former Pulkovo-1 airport building, the modernization and expansion of airfield infrastructure, and the construction of a number of facilities near the airport terminal (including a business center, hotel, two-level overpass, multi-story parking lot, and further amenities). The current service capacity of Pulkovo Airport is 17 million passengers a year.

The Development Prize is given from the results of annual national competition first organized by Vnesheconombank in 2012 with the goal of stimulating investment activities and forming an attractive and favorable investment climate in Russia. The strategic goal of the contest is to carry out a comprehensive modernization and renovation of the Russian economy and achieve sustainable socio-economic growth in Russia. In 2015 the prize is being awarded in eight nominations. This is the first ever prize awarded in the nomination of the best project with participation of foreign investments.

In the picture (provided by the press office of VEB): Sergey Emdin (in the center) receiving the Development Prize from the Sergey Ivanov, head of the Presidential Administration of Russia (on the left), and Vladimir Dmitriev, Chairman of VEB.