USA/GERMANY. Fraport Group has made a vital move into the US airport retail market with the acquisition of AMU Holdings Inc., which owns concessions development and management company Airmall USA. The deal is effective from 1 August.
Airmall is one of the leading airport concessions developers in North America, with operations at Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Together, these four hubs serve a total of about 70 million passengers per year.
Airmall currently oversees about 34,000sq m of space in the passenger terminals at the four airports – with about 270 retail and food & beverage outlets operated by international, national, regional and local tenants.
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“With the acquisition of Airmall, we have established a promising platform for developing our US business in the future.“ |
Dr. Stefan Schulte Executive Board Chairman Fraport |
Fraport AG Executive Board Chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte said: “The retailing business at our Frankfurt home base has always been a growth engine and we have repeated this success story consistently over the years at our other group airports worldwide. With the acquisition of Airmall, we have established a promising platform for developing our US business in the future.”
Fraport AG’s Executive Board Member for Finance (CFO) Dr. Matthias Zieschang added: “On the one hand, Airmall has developed a solid business at the four US airports, whereby investing makes good business sense.
“On the other hand, Airmall will give us a presence at these four airports for further expanding our brand reputation in the US market.” The move would give Fraport the impetus to grow in the Americas and further afield, added the group.
Airmall’s headquarters will remain at Pittsburgh International Airport. Fraport said that “thanks to its successful concessions model in North America, Airmall has one of the highest per-passenger spends on the continent”.
Airmall was acquired by AMU Holdings – a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York-based investment company Prospect Capital Corporation – in 2010 from BAA USA.
