Zurich Airport AG

Zurich Airport AG
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	CH0319416936
founding	April 1, 2000
Seat	Kloten , Switzerland
management	Stephan Widrig ( CEO ) Andreas Schmid ( Chairman of the Board of Directors )
Number of employees	1909 (end of 2019)
sales	1210 million CHF (2019)
Branch	Transport ( NACE 52.23) Aviation services
Website	Zurich Airport AG

The Zurich Airport (FZAG), headquartered in Kloten is the owner and operator of Zurich airport . The public limited company was founded in April 2000 and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange ; the largest single shareholder is the canton of Zurich , which must hold at least one third of the share capital at all times.

From its foundation until April 2010, FZAG appeared externally under the name Unique , while the name Unique (Flughafen Zürich AG) was used in official publications ; Since then, the Unique brand has only been used for activities abroad.

history

Flughafen Zürich AG was created in its current form on April 1st, 2000 through the merger of Flughafen-Immobilien-Gesellschaft (FIG) and Zurich Airport Management (FDZ) .

The airport real estate company FIG , whose roots go back to November 1948, was most recently a stock corporation (since 1984) based in Kloten and responsible for the construction and operation of the buildings at the airport. The canton of Zurich (23 percent) and the city of Zurich (18 percent) were significant shareholders of the FIG.

The Zurich Airport Directorate was affiliated with the cantonal Economics Directorate and the formal owner of the airport as a whole. The responsibilities included the construction and operation of civil engineering works (runways, taxiways), airport operations, negotiation and implementation of the operating regulations and the political representation of the airport.

The privatization of the FIG and the steady growth of the airport led to the political initiative to make Zurich Airport independent and to outsource the FDZ from the cantonal administration and to merge it with the FIG. In response to the initiative, a new airport law was drawn up and approved by the Cantonal Council on July 12, 1999 with 60 percent yes votes. The airport law was put to the vote on November 28th by the citizens of Zurich and approved by them with 61 percent yes-votes.

This created the basis for the new operating company and the new Airport Act came into force on March 1, 2000. On the basis of three merger agreements between the FIG and the Canton of Zurich, the share capital was increased on March 30 from the original 70 million (140,000 registered shares at CHF 500 each) to a new 245,615,000 Swiss francs (4,912,300 registered shares à 50 CHF) and the FDZ was integrated into the FIG, which started operations on April 1st as Flughafen Zürich AG (FZAG) .

Logo Unique

On April 6, FZAG launched the company's appearance under the name “Unique”, under which it only appeared until April 2010. The company has been listed on the SWX since April 12, 2000 ; As a result of the restructuring, the canton of Zurich owned 78.1 percent of the company's share capital on the first day. The shares were continuously reduced, but its share in FZAG was not allowed to fall below 50 percent in this first stage of privatization, as the operating license was issued for the Canton of Zurich until June 1, 2001. After the operating license was transferred to FZAG, the canton was allowed to reduce its stake to a prescribed minimum of 33.33 percent. The concession to operate Zurich Airport, granted by the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications on May 31, 2001, has a term of 50 years, from June 1, 2001 to May 31, 2051.

In December 2001, FZAG founded the subsidiary Unique Airports Worldwide AG , which has since allowed it to operate airports around the world and hold stakes in airports.

Holdings

Through the company A-port Operaciones SA , Chile , the company holds a majority in the management and operation of certain airports in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Chile, these include the three regional airports of Puerto Montt , Iquique and Antofagasta as well as other airports in Colombia and Honduras as well as in Curaçao .

The participation in the airport of Isla de Margarita in Venezuela was expropriated by the state in 2010. A court of arbitration has been called on and decided that the state of Venezuela should pay USD 14.2 million for this by the end of 2014, half of which belongs to Flughafen Zürich AG. In India , Unique held 17 percent of the share capital of Bangalore International Airport Ltd. during the construction phase. (BIAL), the owner and operator of Bangalore Airport, which opened in 2008 ; the proportion was reduced to 5 percent in 2009. This remaining portion was sold in 2017.

In the course of 2019 the company was awarded the contract for operating concessions for two new airports in Brazil (Victoria and Macaé) in addition to Florianópolis, as well as for the development, construction and operation of the new Delhi Noida International Airport in Jewar, India.

Corporate governance

The company has its legal seat in Kloten and falls under the jurisdiction of the Bülach District Court . Since March 2001 the airport administration has been housed centrally in the new Unique One administration building in the west of the airport area, on the border with Rümlang.

The company's CEO is Stephan Widrig, who took over this role at the beginning of 2015. The ten-member board of directors also includes three representatives from the cantonal government and one from the city government of Zurich; This principle has been criticized by business liberals and has since been changed so that the government council delegates two external representatives in addition to its own member. The Board of Directors is made up as follows: Andreas Schmid (President), Vincent Albers, Guglielmo L. Brentel, Josef Felder, Stephan Gemkow, Corine Mauch , Eveline Saupper (Vice President) and Carmen Walker Späh . As of 2018, the auditors of Flughafen Zürich AG are EY based in Zurich.

Shareholders

The registered shares of Flughafen Zürich AG are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (security number 31,941,693, security symbol FHZN); The majority shareholders are the Canton of Zurich with 33.33 percent of the shares and the City of Zurich with 5.05 percent, whereby FZAG is organized as a mixed-economy stock corporation .

The Articles of Association contain an opting-up clause which, in the event of a change of control, provides that minority shareholders are only obliged to make an offer if the limit of 49% is exceeded.

Key figures

year	Sales ( CHF in thousands)	of which aviation business (CHF in thousands)	of which non-aviation business (CHF in thousands)	Group profit (CHF in thousands)
2002	566,362	328,837	237,525	034,773
2003	601,719	347,110	254,609	032,883
2004	683,686	411,754	271,932	052,268
2005	702,229	418,877	283,352	059,123
2006	737,109	444,238	292,871	087,448
2007	802'868	495,981	306,887	130,675
2008	855,103	525,689	329,414	121,314
2009	809,890	501,716	308,174	190,610
2010	851,548	534,722	316,826	138,519
2011	905,404	579,613	325,791	169,845
2012	948,820	596,411	352,409	94,732
2013	975,094	604,491	370'603	137'052
2014	963,479	574,959	388,520	205,921
2015	988,973	597,389	391,584	179,807
2016	1,012,804	620'402	392,402	248,018
2017	1,037,125	624,241	412,884	285,527
2018	1,152,897	656,667	496,230	237,841
2019	1,210,084	661,451	548,633	309,145

Publications

Flughafen Zürich AG publishes periodicals that are also available on the Internet. Homebase is FZAG's internal “house newspaper” and is primarily aimed at employees; Unique! was the company's residents' magazine until July 2005, when it was replaced by the new Air Magazine .

Web links

• Official website of Flughafen Zürich AG

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Annual Report 2019 . Zurich Airport AG. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
2. ↑ flughafen-zuerich.ch: Current operating license (PDF; 39KB), accessed on May 24, 2015
3. ↑ ^{a b} Annual Report 2015 . Zurich Airport AG. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Key figures 2018 . Zurich Airport AG. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
5. ↑ Flughafen Zürich AG receives a concession for an airport in India. Media release November 29, 2019, accessed April 25, 2019.
6. ^ SIX Group : Master data: Flughafen Zürich AG