Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised the New Kansai International Airport Company, Ltd. (NKIAC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Government of Japan, on the privatisation of Kansai and Osaka (Itami) International Airports.
The concessionaire company, formed by the winning consortium made up of ORIX Corporation and VINCI Airports S.A.S., signed a 44-year concession agreement for the operation of the two airports on 15 December 2015. Over the concession term, the company will pay JPY2.2 trillion (US$18bn) to NKIAC.

The transfer of airport operations to the concessionaire company is scheduled for 1 April 2016. This project was procured under the recently established public private partnership legal framework and is Japan’s largest PPP to date. The transaction is likely to serve as a template for the multiple future privatisations planned in the Japan infrastructure sector.

The Freshfields team advising on the concession was led by partners Don Stokes and Edward Cole, with senior counsel Tomoko Nakajima.