Angkasa Pura II Denies Allegations Of Selling Kualanamu Airport To An Indian-French Company: 100 Percent Of Its Assets Belong To Us

JAKARTA - PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) has denied allegations of selling assets or selling shares of Kualanamu International Airport, Medan, North Sumatra with the inclusion of selected strategic partners, namely the India-France joint venture, GMR Airports Consortium. Asset ownership is confirmed to be 100% owned by AP II.

Director of Transformation and Strategic Portfolio of PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II), Armand Hermawan, said this strategic partnership is not a share sale transaction or asset sale of Kualanamu International Airport. However, together they manage and develop Kualanamu International Airport in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra.

"There is no sale of assets or sale of shares of Kualanamu International Airport. The ownership of Kualanamu International Airport and its assets remains 100 percent owned by AP II", he said in a written statement received by VOI, Friday, November 26.

Furthermore, Armand said the jointly managed joint venture will only lease assets to AP II to be managed for 25 years. After the cooperation period ends, JVCo is no longer entitled to manage Kualanamu International Airport and all assets resulting from the development will be returned to AP II. Partnerships can be thought of as leasing agreements with tenants at airport terminals.

Armand said that the GMR Airports Consortium itself was chosen as a strategic partner after going through a series of professional and transparent tender processes.

Meanwhile, PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) with the GMR Airports Consortium formed a Joint Venture Company (JVCo), namely PT Angkasa Pura Aviasi to manage and develop Kualanamu International Airport. AP II is the majority shareholder by controlling 51 percent of shares in PT Angkasa Pura Aviasi, while GMR Airports Consortium holds 49 percent of shares.

"Currently, the management of Kualanamu International Airport is carried out by AP II. In line with the existence of strategic partners, the management for 25 years will be carried out by AP II and GMR through JVCO which is 51 percent owned by AP II. Later the management of Kualanamu International Airport will return entirely to AP II after the cooperation period ends", he said.

Armand said this strategic partnership is an innovative business model that attracts investment from the private sector to be able to contribute to developing infrastructure in Indonesia and providing services for the public interest.

"The purpose of this strategic partnership is to accelerate 3E, namely Expansion the traffic (expand flights), Equity partnership (increase capital), and Expertise sharing (share technology and expertise) so that the competitiveness of Kualanamu International Airport can be improved more quickly", he explained.

Regarding Expansion of the traffic, Armand Hermawan said that Kualanamu International Airport will be used as an international flight hub, especially in the western region, which will bring in many flights from abroad to within the country and vice versa.

The GMR Airports Consortium, which is partly owned by Aéroports de Paris Group (ADP) from France, is an airport operator network with the highest total number of passengers in the world. In 2020 the number of aircraft passenger movements at Kualanamu International Airport is around 3 million passengers per year.

"Through the strategic partnership of AP II and the GMR Airports Consortium, JVco targets the number of passenger movements to be around 54 million passengers per year at the end of the partnership", he said.

Sharing funding

Meanwhile, related to the equity partnership, AP II and the GMR Airports Consortium will share funding so that the development of Kualanamu International Airport can be accelerated and management can implement global best practices.

As for this strategic partnership, strategic partners will invest at least IDR 15 trillion for the development of Kualanamu International Airport. In addition, strategic partners will also provide upfront payments to AP II, which can be used for AP II to strengthen the company's capital structure.

Director of Operations and Services of AP II, Muhamad Wasid, said this strategic partnership also brought expertise sharing or transfer of technology and expertise in airport operations and world-class services.

"Strategic partnerships contribute to providing global best practice to AP II, both in aspects of airport and flight operations as well as services in addition to developing economic activities and non-aeronautical commercial areas", he said.

This strategic partnership will accelerate the development and management of Kualanamu International Airport so that it can optimally and maximally support Indonesia's economic growth.