TURKISH infrastructure company and airport operator IC Holding is in talks with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) about a collaboration deal for the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen airport.

Talks are at a preliminary stage and may or may not lead to an acquisition of a stake by IC Holding at the airport, according to people, who asked not to be named as the deliberations are confidential.

IC Holding declined to comment. MAHB said it is entering a strategic collaboration with IC Holding, without providing more details.

The airport, which lies south-east about an hour’s drive from the city of almost 17 million people, served almost 34 million passengers between January and November, up 21 per cent from a year ago, making it the third-busiest airport in the country in terms of customers, according to state airports authority DHMI.

IC Holding operates the smaller Kutahya airport in Turkey and has taken on turnkey projects to build airfields in Vietnam, Bulgaria, Russia, Saudi Arabia as well as other parts of Turkey, according to its website. The Ankara-based group sold its 49 per cent stake in Antalya Airport, Turkey’s second-largest, to TAV Havalimanlari Holding for 360 million euros (S$524.5 million) in 2018. Fraport is the other partner in the airport.

Malaysia Airports was part of a consortium that won a 1.9-billion-euro contract to operate the Turkish airport in 2008 for 20 years. In 2013, it agreed to raise its holdings to 60 per cent by acquiring a 40 per cent stake held by Indian partner GMR Infrastructure for 225 million euros. It bought the remaining 40 per cent from Turkey’s Limak Holding in 2014 for 285 million euros.

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The Asian company previously had intentions to sell a stake in the airport, and the asset drew some interest from international investors as well as from Turkish Airlines before the pandemic hit the world in early 2020. Turkish Airlines’ offer for an 80 per cent stake in 2018 valued the airport at almost 940 million euros, Bloomberg reported at the time.

On Monday (Dec 25), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Sabiha Gokcen’s second runway. The construction of the strip had been delayed for years as the country focused on completing the main Istanbul Airport. Erdogan said that the new runway’s operation would double Sabiha Gokcen airport’s capacity. Investment for the expansion was about US$970 million, Erdogan said. BLOOMBERG