S'pore firm leads plans to build Myanmar airport

 

The Myanmar government has invited the consortium to re-enter negotiations to design, build and run a new international airport in the country, Yongnam told the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday.

The airport is near Yangon, the former capital, and has been estimated to cost about US$1.1 billion to $1.5 billion.

At present, the biggest and most modern airport in Myanmar is the Mandalay International Airport, with annual passenger capacity of 3 million. The Yangon International Airport comes as the second in terms of capacity. 

Official data showed that Myanmar received more than 2.4 million visitors last year – more than 885,000 visitors by air, more than 6,000 visitors by sea, and more than 1 million visitors from the border gates.

The other two members of the consortium are Singapore-based Changi Airport Planners and Engineers as well as JGC Corporation, which is based in Japan.

The consortium was named as a back-up tenderer for the Hanthawaddy International Airport project in August last year, when the contract was awarded to a group of South Korean companies led by Incheon International Airport Corporation.

However, discussions between the South Koreans and the Myanmar government have since broken down, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday, which cited an anonymous source.

South Korea's transport ministry had said in August last year that Incheon aimed to sign a contract by the end of last year, open the facility in 2018 and operate it for 50 years.

The ministry had also said Hanthawaddy International Airport would be capable of handling about 12 million passengers a year.

Yongnam said on Tuesday that its consortium's negotiation with the Myanmar government would be "on the basis of a public-private partnership agreement for a 30-year concession period".

It added that while it "hopes to have a successful conclusion to the negotiation" with Myanmar's Department of Civil Aviation, "this invitation... may or may not conclude successfully".

The Yongnam-led consortium was also named a back-up tenderer for Yangon International Airport.

Yongnam's shares lost half a cent to end the day at 22.5 cents on Tuesday.  Brokerage houses in Singapore have expected that the bid result would benefit Yongnam. CIMB said that the project would provide recurring earnings as opposed to the merely project-based income that Yongnam currently has. Yongnam is keen to pursue offshore structural projects and investment opportunities in infrastructure development that complement its core business capabilities.