Oman and Turkish pension fund launches $500m JV

• New container port first project
• JV one of 10 new agreements
• Turkey to import Omani gas

A new container port in the southern Turkish city of Iskenderun is to be the first project in a joint venture worth $500 million between one of Turkey’s leading retirement funds and Oman’s sovereign wealth agency. 

The Oman Investment Authority (OIA) and the Turkish military pension fund Oyak plan to invest in a range of sectors through the JV, including logistics, communications, manufacturing and energy.

Each side has committed $250 million to the joint venture.

Iskenderun is already served by one container terminal, though the facility was badly damaged in the twin earthquakes of February 7 last year and a subsequent fire that swept through the storage area. 

The port, one of the largest in the eastern Mediterranean, with a capacity of one million containers a year, only returned to full operations in mid-2024. 

The Oyak-OIA JV tie-up was one of 10 agreements signed during a visit to Turkey by the ruler of Oman, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. In other deals, Ankara agreed to import Omani natural gas, a move designed to diversify Turkey’s energy sources, while the two countries agreed to cooperate in industry, healthcare and agriculture. 

Oyak’s general manager, Süleyman Savaş Erdem, said investment in the new port and the partnership with OIA aligned with his company’s strategy of boosting national export capacity. 

“With this fund we established with the OIA, we will be making investments in strategic areas not only in both countries, but also in different regions of the world,” he said. “This partnership will strengthen our global vision.”

The Omani wealth fund had $51 billion of assets under management as of 2023 and is active in more than 50 countries worldwide.  It has joint venture funds with Spain, Brunei, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India and Pakistan.

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Oyak, which was set up in 1961, had more than $24.4 billion total assets as of the end of 2023. It is already active in the port management sector, with a national market share of almost 10 percent in bulk cargo operations, and it also runs ro-ro (roll on-roll-off) facilities.

It controls Port Yarımca on the inland Sea of Marmara, the import-export gateway for the nearby province of Bursa, home to most of Turkey’s automotive production. 

The company also has investments in the automotive, construction, finance, energy, industrial and agriculture sectors. 

Ahmet Taştekin, the head of the Iskenderun Chamber of Shipping, welcoming the planned new investment by the Oyak-OIA JV, said the effects of the 2023 quakes were still being felt.

“Expanding Turkey’s maritime trade and ports capacity is important,” he told AGBI. “However, even though Iskenderun port recovered quickly from the impact of the quake, the tonnage handled at the port declined in 2023 and in 2024. We are in a recession, and that has a negative impact.”