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AFP
Chinese financial giant Everbright has bought the Albanian capital’s main air hub, Tirana International Airport, its management said. The airport had since 2005 been run by TIA, whose shareholders include German airport manager AviAlliance, German investment and development firm DEG and the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund.
“We are thrilled to announce an era of transformation with China Everbright Limited,” TIA CEO Rolf Castro-Vasquez said in a statement, announcing the sale of 100 percent of its shares.
Passengers numbers hit 2 million last year from 600,000 in 2005. TIA has over the past decade invested some 70 million euros ($78 million) in the facility.
Everbright CEO Chen Shuang hailed the deal as a means of promoting trade with ex communist Albania, and a deal “of great significance and value”.
The country has been a NATO member since 2009 but was for some decades an ally of Beijing after Tirana broke with the Soviet Union in the early 1960s