The French company Vinci Airports filed applications with the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition for the Nikola Tesla Airport concession, Commission President Miloje Obradovic said on Friday.

The approval says that “VINCI Airports Serbia d.o.o. is a part of VINCI Group and it has never before worked in Serbia’s airport services.”

The French company filed applications with Serbia’S Commission for Protection of Competition for the Nikola Tesla Airport concession in April.

VINCI will be in charge of “the development and reconstruction, maintaining and managing the airport’s infrastructure and conducting activities as the airport’s operator.”

VINCI had offered 501 million Euros to manage the airport and 732 million Euros in investment, as well as an annual fee of up to 16 million Euros, which was deemed to be the best offer according to all three criteria – financial, technical and legal.

Euractive.rs published in January that besides Vinci, offers for the Belgrade airport were made by the Swiss-French consortium Zurich Airport, comprising the Eiffage and Meridiam Eastern Europe Investments companies, the Indian-Greek consortium consisting of GRM Infrastructure Ltd and Terna, and the South Korean-Turkish-Cypriot consortium comprising the Incheon International Airport Corporation, Yatirimlari ve Islatme and VTB Capital Infrastructure.

The website, a part of the Euractive.com added that just over 400 million Euros from the concession bid would add to the state budget, while the rest would go to the minority shareholders – the Serbian citizens who received Airport shares in line with the Law on the Right to Free Shares and Monetary Compensation in the 2007 privatisation procedure.

The state controls an 83 percent stake in the “Nikola Tesla Airport”, while minority shareholders and some banks own the rest, Euractiv.rs added.

The Serbian government has said that in the next 25 years the planned revenue from the concession and investment will be 1.5 billion Euros, while the annual concession fee will range from 4.4 to 15.1 million Euros.

VINCI Airports was founded in 1996 as part of the Vinci construction and business company, one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. It manages airports in seven countries.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.