Malaysian companies may participate in the management of airports in Ukraine, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said at a joint news conference in Putrajaya on Thursday, 4 August, after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Yulia Kovaliv told the Interfax Ukraine news agency that the company in question is Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB, Malaysia Airports), which successfully manages the Sabiha Gokcen airport, the second largest airport in Istanbul.
"The possibility of attracting such an efficient operator to operate our largest airports in Ukraine based on public partnership or concession terms was discussed. Primarily, they focused on the Boryspil airport," Kovaliv said.
According to Kovaliv, the Ukrainian side invited representatives of MAHB to Ukraine. "To discuss whether our legislation is sufficient to implement it or whether it will be necessary to amend the legislation," she said.
Malaysia Airports manages five international and 16 domestic airports in Malaysia (not including another 18 airports for short take-off and landing), as well as the Sabiha Gokcen airport in Istanbul (since 2008) and the Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad airport in India (since 2003). Previously, it also operated the Astana airport in Kazakhstan (from 2007 to 2009) and the Indira Gandhi airport in New Delhi (from 2007 to 2015). The company's shares have been traded on the Malaysian stock exchange since 1999.
Malaysia Airports’ revenues increased by 11.1% to MYR 2 billion (USD 493.7 million at the current exchange rate), its EBITDA by 28.1% to MYR 870.2 million, and its after-tax profit 2.3-fold to MYR 25.1 million in the first half of 2016.
The number of passengers during this period increased by 4.2% to 56.3 million, including a 12% increase in the number of passengers at foreign airports to 14.2 million.
