Turkey says talks with Abu Dhabi fail on port deal

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The Turkish government has confirmed that talks with Abu Dhabi Ports Group (AD Ports) over operating rights at the Alsancak freight and passenger port in Western Turkey have failed.

“The aim there was to get a partner for the Alsancak port and adding capital to expand it,” Turkish transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told Bloomberg. No reasons for the deal’s failure were given.

AD Ports, 75 percent owned by state-run ADQ, trades on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The share closed at AED4.83 ($1.32), down 0.6 percent on Thursday.

The minister said the negotiations with AD Ports had been ongoing since 2023, adding that there are no ongoing talks with any other investors.

Turkey’s sovereign fund TWF has owned the Alsancak port in Izmir province since 2017. The port’s privatisation was thwarted in 2007 after a court decision.

In July 2023 the president Tayyip Erdogan toured the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, seeking investments to bolster the Turkish economy. The UAE and Turkey signed deals worth nearly $51 billion at that time.

In December 2023 Reuters reported that AD Ports Group intended to invest $500 million in a new company proposed by Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund to run the Aegean coast port of Izmir.

DP World Yarimca Port and Turkey’s Evyap Group also signed an agreement in August 2023 to secure supply services in the Marmara gateway.

Turkey signed a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (Cepa) with the UAE in March 2023 with bilateral trade, which was $10 billion in 2022, expected to quadruple to $40 billion by 2028.