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Turkish firm to operate, finance & repair Montenegrin port in bid to emulate past successes
Turkish-based operator Global Ports Holding (GPH) has acquired a 62 percent stake in the Port of Bar – Montenegro’s largest commercial port
GPH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Investments Holdings, will operate, finance and repair the Montenegrin port for a 30-year period after being selected as the preferred bidder for a tender offered by Montenegro’s Ministry of Maritime Transportation.
The Port of Bar has the capacity to handle as many as one million TEU per year. However, due to a lack of hinterland investment and infrastructural upgrades in recent years, the port is not being utilised to its full potential. In a statement, GPH said that it will look to reinvent the port to emulate its past successes when it was once considered the premier port of former Yugoslavia. GPH plans to attract back the traffic from Serbia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania to bring back its so-called glory days.
Furthermore, GPH, who operate three leading commercial and cruise ports in Turkey, has also confirmed that it has agreed a 23 percent share purchase in the Spanish port operator Creuers del Port de Barcelona SA in conjunction with Royal Caribbean Cruises. Creuers operates a total of five cruise terminals in the Port of Barcelona, which boasts a passenger capacity of around 1.8 million, and holds a majority stake in the Port of Malaga and a separate minority stake in Singapore’s Passenger Port.
