The new investor of Pulkovo Airport is the structure of the Oman state fund Saturn

Orbit Aviation is 99% owned by Galaxy Aviation, which is owned by Saturn. In January of this year, Maaden Investment, a company associated with the same fund, acquired 23.9% of the Russian gold miner Polymetal.

Orbit Aviation’s stake was previously owned by German holding company Fraport AG, which operates Frankfurt International Airport and also has stakes in several dozen airports around the world. Fraport notified VTB, as a co-owner of Pulkovo, about the sale, the bank did not object to the transaction, the financial organization told the newspaper. Saturn, Fraport and Pulkovo did not respond to the publication’s request.

VVSS Holding LLC was registered in December 2023 and received 100% of Northern Capital Gate LLC, the operator of Pulkovo. Previously, the operator belonged to the Cypriot Thalita Trading. In 2010, the largest shareholders of Thalita Trading were VTB (50%) and Fraport (35.5%), subsequently the ownership structure changed several times, Interfax writes.

Fraport announced the sale of its stake in Pulkovo on December 5. “With this agreement we end our participation in Russia. Our goal has always been to find an investment solution that meets the best interests of our shareholders,” said the company’s CEO, Stefan Schulte. Fraport decided to cease its operations in Russia in the second quarter of 2022, according to the statement.

Analysts interviewed by Kommersant believe that Middle Eastern investors can make more investments both in airports and in the Russian aviation industry as a whole. Elina Kulieva, senior director of corporate ratings at Expert RA, noted that Pulkovo’s structure involved the participation of international investors. Until 2022, foreign participants mainly co-financed the modernization of the airport, but in the case of investments from Oman we can talk about a new stage of strategic development, Kulieva believes.