Connect Consortium Bids for Sydney Airport

Sydney (PROTEXT/ots) - The Connect Consortium - comprising ABNAMRO Bank, Challenger, Egis, Fraport AG Frankfurt AirportServices Worldwide, and Schiphol Group - delivered an "indicativebid" today to the Government of Australia for the 100 percentprivatization of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (KSA). SydneyAirport is the country's main hub for both AustralianAirlines/Star Alliance and for Qantas/OneWorld. In 2000, KSAranked 36 in the world with 23.6 million passengers and 29 withalmost 565,000 metric tons of air cargo. Well-managed by theSydney Airport Corporation Ltd. (SACL), KSA also contributed tothe memorable success of the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games. ABN AMRO is one of the leading investment banks in the world.Along with being a major financial player in the air transportsector, ABN AMRO has a strong presence in the Asia/Pacific regionand is Europe's fifth largest bank. Challenger is a financialservices company listed on the Australian stock exchange, Egis isa global infrastructure company owned by the French CDC financialgroup. Fraport AG and Schiphol Group - both internationally activeairport companies - are the respective managers of FrankfurtAirport (FRA) and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), two of themost significant global air transportation hubs. FrankfurtAirport is number seven worldwide (number two in Europe) with49.4 million passengers in 2000; number eight worldwide (numberone in Europe) in terms of air cargo with 1.7 million metrictons. Likewise, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport ranks number tenworldwide (number four in Europe) with 39.6 million passengerslast year. Handling 1.3 million metric tons last year, Amsterdamranks as the number 15 cargo airport in the world (number four inEurope). All airport figurers are from the ACI Airports CouncilInternational (air cargo includes airmail tonnage).

ots Original Text Service: Fraport AG Internet:http://www.presseportal.de Contact: Veronica Harrer Tel. ++4969 690 70554

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