A real estate manager and a tech entrepreneur believe they can bring bankrupt Hahn Airport back to its former glory.

"We are very pleased to have been awarded the contract in the bidding process," said the investors Tobias Steyer and Martin Mansell.

Shortly before, they had jointly founded the company Swift Conjoy GmbH to acquire the airport assets from the insolvency administrator.

The purchase price was not mentioned.

The buyers emphasized that they should not only continue passenger and cargo flight operations at Hahn.

They also want to expand it.

"This includes investments and the creation of new jobs in the region."

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Tobias Steyer from Oberursel and Martin Mansell from the UK have not yet attracted attention as airport managers.

The 45-year-old Steyer has been managing the Swift Holding company based in Frankfurt for two years.

The multi-family office has expertise in “luxury living, classic residential real estate, social real estate or commercial real estate, such as offices, retail, medical practices, hotels and restaurants,” Swift applies himself. According to the company, the holding company manages around ten billion euros from investors and 10,000 Apartments.

Swift projects include the 96-meter-high "Hochhaus am Park" in Frankfurt, a business complex in Bad Homburg and a residential building in Frankfurt-Schwanheim.

In addition, Steyer is registered as the managing director of an asset management company and a Mainz-based management consultancy.

Steyer could not be reached on Thursday for further information.

He said he would only comment after the sale was completed.

Hahn investors take over a good 400 employees

According to media reports, his business partner from Leeds founded a tech start-up called Looking4, which offers price comparison for airport parking spaces.

In 2018 the comparison portal was taken over by the Manchester Airports Group.

At the end of 2021, Mansell founded the investment company Conjoy Investment Partners. According to the insolvency administrator, “entrepreneurs and executives with profound experience in the aviation, airport, travel and retail sectors” are involved.

Conjoy Investment Partners has now formed the joint venture Swift Conjoy with Frankfurt Swift to acquire the airport.

The investors do not buy the insolvent airport company, but only its assets, i.e. land, real estate, business operations, and they take over the employment contracts of the last 400 employees.

In contrast, the debts remain in the insolvent airport company.

For both investors and flight operations, this has the advantage that they can start over without having to deal with legacy issues.

The previous owners could not object, as the court-appointed insolvency administrator Jan Markus Plathner can make the sales decisions alone.

With the proceeds from the fortune, he will now try to repay at least part of the debt to the creditors.

And that probably also applies to the Hessian taxpayers.

20 years ago, the State of Hesse acquired a 17.5 percent stake in the airport, with the remainder belonging to the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the airport operator Fraport.

But while first Fraport and then Rhineland-Palatinate separated from the Hahn, the state of Hesse stuck to it.

The shares had cost 20 million euros at the time.

No further sums of money are said to have flowed from Hesse to Hahn since then.

The Ministry of Finance in Wiesbaden, which manages the state's holdings, does not currently know how much money the state will see again, now that the old company has hardly any assets, but many debts.

"Hesse will promptly hold talks with the insolvency administrator about what specific consequences the sale of Hahn Airport will have for the participation of the state of Hesse," said a ministry spokesman.

The sale is welcomed: "We are pleased that the airport and the employees have future prospects."