Portek acquires Latvian operator

The operator say that the acquisition is a strategic move to develop its reach into the container, wood, and frozen food handling markets in and around the Baltic Sea.

Mr Takao Omori, CEO, Portek, said: “RUT, with a motivated workforce and a progressive management team holds tremendous potential for expansion in the Baltic and we are confident that RUT will add significant strategic value to Portek’s long term growth.”

He said to Port Strategy that this is a strategic move to penetrate the Baltic region because “the region, while being European serves as an important gateway for central Asian and Russian markets via railway.”

The steady increases in cargo handled at the Freeport of Riga since the global financial crisis bears this out – Latvia was the fastest growing EU country in terms of GDP in 2012.

Portek points out that the existing management team at RUT will keep their jobs but they will be joined by new managers from Portek with the aim of bringing the Singaporean operator’s expertise on board for the next phase of RUT’s development.

RUT will also benefit from Portek’s equipment expertise and close links with its shipping lines and cargo owners.

RUT operates at Riga Free Port and owns various subsidiaries. This includes BFT SIA which is the only cold storage in Riga Free Port, UT Komunalserviss SIA, which maintains terminal infrastructure in the area and Alpha Express SIA, which is the railway marshalling company in the terminal area.