Billionaire Gautam Adani’s company Adani Ports won the tender for the privatization of the Israeli port of Haifa on July 14, along with local business partner Gadot, a chemical and logistics group. It is a major trading hub on the country’s Mediterranean coast.
Gautam Adani reported the latest update on twitter and wrote: “Delighted to win tender for privatization of Haifa port in Israel with our partner Gadot. Huge strategic and historical significance for both nations (sic).”
the winning bid was placed at 4.1 billion shekels ($1.18 billion). Gadot and Adani have reached the end of a two-year tender that Israel hopes will lower import prices and help reduce notoriously long wait times at Israeli ports, the agency added.
“The privatization of the port of Haifa will increase competition in the ports and reduce the cost of living,” Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.
Under the deal, Adani will have a majority 70 percent stake, with Gadot holding the remaining percentage. The new owners will compete with a private port that opened in the bay last year and is operated by Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG).
Earlier in May, the company’s CEO Karan Adani said that Adani Ports is striving to become a leading global ports group.
Haifa Port said the new group would run the port until 2054 and that the winning bid was “higher than expected”.