Adani Ports, Gadot bag Port of Haifa privatization tender in Israel

India-based Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) in consortium with Israeli chemical company Gadot Group has bagged the Port of Haifa privatization tender in Israel.

The consortium’s offer for the Port of Haifa privatization tender was NIS 4.1 billion (1.18 billion).

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has a 70% stake in the consortium, while the remaining 30% is held by Gadot Group.

Commenting on the Port of Haifa privatization tender win, Karan Adani — Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Wholetime Director and CEO said: “This win is strategic for us from several dimensions. It gives us a much larger presence in Israel, one of India‘s most strategic partners, with whom the Adani Group has been working for six long years to build a network of relationships across several industries.

“In the short term, we look forward to developing strategic trade lanes between our ports in India and Haifa and help facilitate trade between the two countries, diversifying the port cargo as well as leveraging our expertise to increase the operational efficiencies.”

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Gadot Group bag Port of Haifa privatization tender in Israel. Photo courtesy of Zvi Roger/Wikipedia.org.

The concession period of the second largest port in Israel remains to be up to 2054.

Port of Haifa is said to handle almost half of the container cargo of Israel apart from being the main port for cruise ships and passenger traffic.

Its existing infrastructure features a couple of container terminals as well as two multi-cargo terminals. The total developed quay length is over 2,900m and the maximum draft available is in the range of 11-16.5m.

Last year, Port of Haifa handled 1.46 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers and 2.56 million tons of general and bulk cargo.

Opher Linchevski — Gadot Group CEO, commenting on the Port of Haifa privatization tender win, said: “Our partnership with Adani blends the best of two worlds – our expertise in handling cargo in Haifa Port and Adani’s world class capability in managing port operations.

“The length of the lease and the growth that we anticipate in the Israel economy as well as the surrounding regions means we are well positioned to invest to build one of the best ports in this region.”