By Andrew Tellijohn and Carol Ward
AMU Holdings Inc., which owns Airmall USA, has been acquired by Fraport Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fraport Group operates Frankfurt (FRA) in Germany along with subsidiaries and investments in a dozen more airports in four continents. Acquiring Airmall puts the company in four major airports in the United States: Pittsburgh International (PIT), Boston Logan International (BOS), Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) and Cleveland-Hopkins International (CLE).
Airmall’s presence includes overseeing about 366,000 square feet of space in those terminals, with about 270 retail and food outlets operated by international, national, regional and local tenants.
Airmall USA President and CEO Brandon Blaylock says he doesn’t anticipate any major changes for Airmall operations going forward.
“Fraport is committed to retaining all the employees, we will continue all the operations as they are, and the key people will remain in each of the four locations,” Blaylock says.
The U.S. company will retain the Airmall USA name and will remain headquartered in Pittsburgh.
Blaylock, who says he will remain president and CEO “until further notice,” hinted that this initial step by Fraport might be followed by other moves in North America.
“I don’t think it’s their last step,” Blaylock says. “They have big plans.”
Blaylock adds that bidding on current and future projects will remain aggressive and, “if anything, they’ll be ramped up.”
The acquisition gives Fraport its first airport property development holdings in North America, allowing it to bring its international retail expertise to the U.S. market. The German company owns Orlando-based AirIT, an air transport information technology solutions firm.
“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,” says Stefan Schulte, chairman of the Fraport board.
The acquisition, according to a Fraport news release, gives the company “the right prerequisites for further growth on the continent and in other parts of the world.”
“On the one hand, Airmall has developed a solid business at the four U.S. airports, whereby investing makes good business sense,” says Matthias Zieschang, Fraport executive board member and executive director for controlling and finance. “On the other hand, Airmall will give us a presence at these four airports for further expanding our brand reputation in the U.S. market.”
FRA, the company’s home base, had more than 58 million passengers in 2013 and handled more than 2.1 million metric tons of cargo. It is served by 108 passenger airlines flying to about 295 destinations in 105 countries. The Frankfurt Airport City has become Germany’s largest job complex at a single location, with more than 78,000 employees and 500 companies on site.
