VINCI Airports, the VINCI Group's airport subsidiary, has signed an agreement with the Advent International private equity firm to acquire Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI, SA (AERODOM).

The Dominican company has a concession contract with the Dominican Government and the Airport Commission to operate six airports in the Dominican Republic, valid until March 2030. The transaction and the transfer of operations are to take place by the end of the first quarter of 2016.

AERODOM operates six of the nine airports in the Dominical Republic:

• Las Américas International Airport is one of the island's largest, serving Santo Domingo, the country's capital, since 1959. Total traffic amounted to 3.3 million passengers in 2014;
• Gregorio Luperón in Puerto Plata is the gateway to the island's second largest tourist destination, with 787,000 passengers in 2014;
•  Presidente Juan Bosch and Arroyo Barril in Samaná, La Isabela in Santo Domingo and María Montez in Barahona together served a total of 247,000 passengers in 2014.

Overall, the AERODOM airports handled 4.3 million passengers in 2014, 98% of them international.

With an average annual growth rate of 5% over the past 10 years, the Dominican Republic features an attractive economy and forms a dynamic region. The country notably benefits from North American growth and the local authorities' ambitious tourism expansion policy.

The new acquisition will bring the number of airports operated by VINCI Airports to 33, including two Kansai airports in Japan, for which VINCI Airports, in partnership with Orix, signed a preliminary agreement last November.