Global Ports wins tender for Port of Bar

The acquisition marks GPH’s first investment in cargo ports abroad as well as the first ever Turkish acquisition of a controlling stake in an overseas port operation.

For GPH, the strategy behind the acquisition is to get the port back to realising its full potential of 1m teu container and 6m tonnes of general cargo and it will do this by improving infrastructure.

Port of Bar used to be the main port of the Federal Republic of ex-Yugoslavia and GPH wants to attract back trade from Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Saygın Narin, CEO, GPH, said: “There is a railway to the port which is not very active, we will utilise this railway more actively. Additionally, the Port has very large warehouses; we aim to build a logistics centre around these. Finally, the Port has a potential to become a new route for the cruise ships. Therefore, we plan to build a cruise pier in the Port. We will contribute to the economy of the country with the cruise pier as well.”

Mr Narin pointed out that GPH has been targeting organic growth until now while revamping efficiency, systems and marketing processes in its Turkish ports.

“Having also successfully integrated our three ports, we are currently focusing on inorganic growth. We aim to add new ports, domestic and international into our portfolio,” he said.

He also pointed out that more acquisitions are on the way.