A Big Deal in Germany

A Chinese private owned logistics services firm, Link Global, finalizes the deal to buy a German airport for ¥1 billion, approximately $130 million dollars. It is the first time that Chinese has an airport in the Continent.

The Chinese firms final won the bid by beating 10 competitors, and signed the formal contract after a pre-agreement. It is an ambitious investment. German officials said, last month that Link Global would invest 20 million euros (27 million dollars) in the airport over the next two years, but company officials said Thursday that its investment "should be more" than 20 million euros.

(left: the Parchim airport bird-eye view from Google earth)

The German airport, Parchim, is near the city of Schwerin, midway between Berlin and Hamburg. The business of the provincial airport was not quite good, according to the report from German. It lost money, and now specializes in air freight only. Later, The site is being sold by the county of Parchim, after an earlier bid by Britain's Wiggins Group collapsed in 2005.