Vnukovo Airport co-owner Vantsev offers to invest in Domodedovo Airport
MOSCOW. July 30 (Interfax) - Vnukovo Airport co-owner Vitaly Vantsev said he is prepared to become an investor in rival Moscow airport Domodedovo, which has been nationalized.
"We have good experience, so we're prepared to take on Domodedovo," Vantsev said in an interview with RBC, adding that borrowed funds could be raised to buy the airport.
Domodedovo's financial problems should be solved by a strategic investor, not the state, he said.
"The state certainly cannot pay off Domodedovo's losses, because it has other problems. The last thing the government needs is to allocate billions to cover debts that the previous private investor orchestrated. It makes sense for the state to develop infrastructure, not pay off old debts. Therefore, one must look for a strategic investor who can do this," Vantsev said.
Domodedovo's new managing director, Andrei Ivanov said earlier in an interview with RBC that the airport's total debt is 70 billion rubles and interest payments will total 8 billion rubles for the year. The group has debt on taxes and wages to employees, he said.
The airport's financial performance has been declining for the past two years along with passenger traffic. The group's revenue slumped to 31 billion rubles in 2024 from 34 billion rubles in 2023, and losses totalled 7.2 billion rubles.
Vantsev said he held negotiations with Domodedovo's previous beneficiary Dmitry Kamenschik to buy the airport or his stake last winter and spring. Various options were proposed, including the purchase of his stake or part of his stake and a merger.
"Our last conversation was on April 16. We made him an offer, he said the offer is good and he'll think about it. And went to think," Vantsev said, adding that they had no further communication before Domodedovo was nationalized.
Vantsev also recalled that 12 years ago the beneficiaries of Moscow airports Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Domodedovo held talks on creating a unified management company in the Russian capital's air hub.
"The crisis [in Russia's aviation industry] came in 2014, not in 2020. While in good times, when there is strong growth, an upswing, there's room for everyone, in hard times businessmen try to consolidate somehow. This applies to any business, not just aviation. Take London, for a long time its main airports belonged to one company [Heathrow Airport Holdings] and they did not compete with one another, they thought about how to organize operations and processes correctly," Vantsev said.
He said an agreement was not reached in the past due to the position of Kamenschik, who had different views regarding the development of the business. A dialog between Moscow's airports could resume after the government determines Domodedovo's new owner, Vantsev said.
The Arbitration Court of Moscow Region on June 17 ruled in favour of the Prosecutor General's Office in its lawsuit to nationalize 100% of shares in DME Holding LLC, the holding company that owns the assets of Domodedovo Airport. The lawsuit claimed that the airport's beneficiaries, whom the PGO named as Kamenschik and former Domodedovo supervisory board chairman Valery Kogan, being residents of other countries in violation of Russian law, controlled the assets of an enterprise that is of strategic importance to Russia and funneled its profits abroad.
Domodedovo Group companies were transferred to the Federal Property Agency on June 19. Andrei Ivanov, a former deputy finance minister and first deputy economic development minister, was appointed to head the group's parent company.
