MEDIA

26 Aug 2014

Global Ports Holding Completed the Share Transfer of the Lisbon Cruise Terminal as a Lead Investor

Global Ports Holding (GPH) completed the share transfer of the Lisbon Cruise Terminal as a part of the consortium comprised of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Creuers del Port de Barcelona, S.A. and Grupo Sousa – Investimentos SGPS, LDA. GPH is the lead investor with 40% of the consortium with 30% held by Grupo Sousa Investimentos SGPS, 20% by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and 10% by Creuers Del Port Barcelona S.A. As of today, GPH effectively owns 21.5% of Creuers in partnership by Royal Caribbean Cruises, and recently signed a binding share purchase agreement to increase its effective stake to 62%. Creuers operates the Port of Barcelona, Europe's largest cruise port with a passenger capacity of 1.8mn and is the majority shareholder of the Malaga Cruise Port and the minority shareholder of the Singapore Cruise Port. Upon completion of the Creuers transaction, GPH’s effective stake in the Lisbon consortium will increase to 46.2%.
The 35-year Built Operate Transfer (BOT) of the Lisbon Cruise Terminal will include the construction and the operation of a landmark cruise terminal of 16,619m2 in total area, on a public-service concession basis, at the Lisbon Cruise Terminal. The total concession area available to the consortium covers 60,632m2. With the addition of the new terminal, which will reach 1425m in berth length and of 2mn of passenger capacity, the Port Authority of Lisbon aims to grow in calls and cruise passengers as well as turn-around operations, and as such double the current visitors of 550,000 passengers in the near future while contributing favorably to regional tourism and economy. The construction of the terminal is expected start in early 2015 with completion by the end of 2016 and is estimated to require c. Euro22mn in total investment.
Once completed, with the addition of Lisbon Cruise Port to the existing portfolio of Barcelona, Malaga, Singapore, Kuşadası, Bodrum and Antalya Ports, GPH will reach 10mn cruise passengers worldwide, making it the world’s largest cruise operator.