The Montenegro Ministry of Transport & Maritime Affairs and the Montenegro Port Authority signed on November 15th, 2013 the Port of Bar concession with the Turkish port operator, Global Ports Holdings (GPH).

Global Ports Holdings, has acquired the unlisted 62,09% of the shares of the Container Terminal and General Cargo JSC (CTGC) company that operates the Port of Bar through a privatization process. The transaction is valued at €30 million.

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.

The concession includes the repais, financing, operate and maintenance, for a period of 30 years, the CTGC terminal. The concession area comprises of approximately 13 hectares for containers; 6 hectares for breakbulk; and over 7 hectares for warehousing.

Sayg?n 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."

GPH was advised by MTBS. MTBS assisted GPH in the bid preparation phase by executing a commercial due diligence, project structuring and valuation, market study, financial/ tariff assessment, preparation of the bid documentation and a review on the legal documentation.

Despite its maximum annual capacity of 1 million containers and 6 million tonnes of breakbulk, the Port of Bar currently handles approximately 30,000 TEU and 290,000 tonnes of breakbulk. The water alongside the quay in the Montenegrin port is 12 meters deep.