Faster process for privatization of Soekarno-Hatta airport demanded
Faster process for privatization of Soekarno-Hatta airport demanded
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's major airport operator is hoping the
government will soon recommence the tender process for the
privatization of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta
after being delayed for over a year.
President of Indonesia's major airport operator PT Angkasa
Pura II, Miskul Firdaus, said on Thursday that he had sent a
letter to the Minister of Finance informing him of the previous
options available to the airport.
He said that last year, the government had come to two
options, to re-tender the contract or to renegotiate with the two
bidders remaining from the 1999 tender.
The government had in fact set a deadline for the
privatization process to be finalized by November this year, but
there were no definite plans to recommence the process, Miskul
said.
The two foreign bidders are the French airport authority
Aeroport de Paris in conjunction with GTM, a subsidiary of
another French firm, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux SA; and a consortium
of Airport Schiphol in Holland and the British Airport Authority,
he said.
Re-tendering the contract would take a long time to finalize,
Miskul said, adding that the government would need to relaunch
the tendering process from preliminary bids to due diligence
process.
However, if the government decided to pick up negotiations
with the two investors, it may trigger criticism from other
interested investors, he added.
The now defunct State Ministry for the Empowerment of State
Enterprises had selected the Soekarno-Hatta airport to be
privatized by the end of March 1999, it has since been postponed
due to a disagreement on the value of the contract and the
reshuffling of the Cabinet which has taken place several times
since early 1999 when the privatization plan was made.
The preferred privatization method for the company was through
a 30-year concession, including management inputs by a strategic
partner to help solve the various problems of the airport
management company which included lack of customer-oriented
services, overdue receivables, red-tape and weak organizational
structure.
Miskul said that outside of the air traffic control division,
the company would sell 49 percent of its shares to a strategic
investor.
According to the government privatization blueprint, a
concessionaire typically pays an annual fee (netted against any
explicit subsidies paid by the government).
The concessionaire is usually responsible not only for
maintaining and replacing existing assets, but also for making
new investments as required by the business and the license.
At the end of the concession, the assets will be returned to
the government, possibly with compensation for the acquisition of
new and unexpired assets. (tnt)