A new auction for the lease of commercial premises in the Duty Free zone of the Chisinau airport will be organized after changing the conditions of participation in order to attract more well-known international companies.
The Public Property Agency reported this, noting that since only 1 company submitted documents at the last stage of the previous tender, it is proposed to organize a new auction with the modification of its conditions. In particular, the Public Property Agency will recommend the airport administration to study the feasibility of adjusting the terms of reference: to include additional and more detailed explanations of the criteria, leaving no room for interpretation; to reduce the number of airports in which the participants should demonstrate their activity (it is recommended to reduce them from 10 to 7); to divide the tender into 2 separate lots by areas: one lot for Travel Retail (stores) and the other for Food and Beverages (restaurants). It will also be proposed to extend the lease period of the premises from 3 to 5 years for the winning company. The Public Property Agency points out that the original 3-year term stipulated in the terms of reference is based on existing legal provisions. In order to exclude the current limitation of the maximum 3 years of the lease agreement for the airport premises, the Public Property Agency will address the Parliament with proposals to amend the law, including the Chisinau airport in the list of assets that cannot be privatized. This change also guarantees that the airport will remain a state property in the future. The start date of the new auction will be calculated from the date of the amendment of the legislation on assets not subject to privatization. As previously reported, only 2 companies - LeBridge and Lagardere - applied for the first auction announced earlier for the lease of commercial areas for catering and specialized trade for the sterile zone, Duty Free zone in the premises of Chisinau airport. The Public Property Agency and the airport informed that due to the lack of sufficient competition, as well as some shortcomings in the process of organizing the auction, it was decided to hold a new tender. At the same time, between March 11 and March 25, Lagardere Travel Retail was the only company that submitted a dossier to participate in the new auction. Therefore, the tender commission decided to extend the deadline for accepting bids until April 15. It was said that if at the end of the extended term of the auction only 1 dossier is submitted, the organizer of the tender will consider the mentioned procedure completed. Subsequently, Chisinau Airport reported that the deadline for submitting bids for participation in the auction expired on April 15 and only 1 bid was received from Lagardere Travel Retail. The Tender Commission examined its dossier and after examining the submitted materials regarding the qualification conditions, the members of the Tender Commission found that the company Lagardere Travel Retail did not submit all the supporting documents to pass to the final stage. Thus, the auction for the lease of the unused property intended for Travel Retail & Food and Beverages activities was stopped. // 03.05.2024 - InfoMarket.
