German airport operator Fraport is in talks to sell its stake in Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport (LED) before the end of 2023, according to Russian financial newspaper Vedomosti.  

Vedomosti quoted the chairman of Russia’s state-owned bank VTB on the matter. 

Since 2009, the German company has held a 25% stake in Northern Capital Gateway, the consortium that controls Pulkovo Airport.  

In March 2022, Fraport issued an official statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and clarifying that the firm was not involved in the operational management of the airport in any capacity, and none of its staff was working there. 

This was followed by another statement in May 2022 where Fraport informed it was reviewing its equity stake in the Russian airport, but warned contractual agreements was preventing it from divesting before 2025. 

Fraport has reportedly been negotiating its exit from Pulkovo Airport for more than a year and the parties may now be close to settling the matter. Fraport values its stake in the consortium at around €111 million ($119 million), although Russian authorities have been imposing penalties on foreign companies divesting from their Russian equity holdings. 

According to the sources quoted by Vedomosti, the potential sale of Fraport’s stake has attracted the interested of most major airport management companies in Russia, such as Airport of the Regions and Novaport, and could also receive some foreign bidders.  

In 2022 Northern Capital Gateway posted a profit of 4.8 billion RUB ($50 million approximately) on 17.2 billion RUB in revenue ($179 million).  

During the same year, Pulkovo, which services Russia’s second largest city and is a base for Aeroflot’s subsidiary “Rossiya”, handled 18.2 million passengers. This makes it the country’s third busiest airport after two of Moscow’s airports: Sheremetyevo (SVO), which handled 28.4 million passengers, and Domodedovo (DME), with 21.2 million.  

In 2023, Pulkovo could surpass the latter to become Russia’s second busiest airport.