Abu Dhabi Ports Group, a company owned by the Abu Dhabi state wealth fund, has acquired 40% of Algeposa Terminal Asturias, which is responsible for stowage at both Al Musel and the port of Avilés de los, among other customers. Steel products produced at the ArcelorMittal factories in Asturias and from the unloading of semi-finished steel imported by the Asturian steel company. The majority shareholder of the Asturian company is the Algeposa group.
The Arab investment group’s entry into the Asturias shipping company is part of a larger operation; Acquisition of Noatum, the main logistics operator of Spanish ports and owned by JP Morgan, for 660 million euros. Noatum controls or participates as a minority partner in 16 terminals in Spanish ports, where it annually handles more than 13 million tons of bulk and general cargo, 241,000 containers and 835,000 vehicles. It also carries out container movements for land and project cargoes. It also operates a terminal in an Egyptian port.
Noatum acquired 40% of Algeposa Asturias in the alliance formed by both companies at the Spanish terminals on 29 June 2018. Algeposa and Noatum Maritime, which already have shares in port ships operating in the ports of Bilbao and Tarragona, later signed a share exchange agreement in the companies they operate in other ports. Thus, Noatum acquired 40% of Algeposa Asturias and Algeposa Huelva, while Algeposa acquired 40% of Noatum Castellón and Noatum Sagunto. While previously Noatum operated in El Musel through its subsidiary Marítima del Mediterráneo (Marmedsa), it has limited operations, while Algeposa Asturias is one of the main ports in El Musel next to the container terminal.
The sale of Noatum to Abu Dhabi State Wealth Fund comes after JP Morgan launched these assets for around €900 million more than a year ago. In a second attempt, the US financial institution also tried to sell off the three divisions of the Spanish group piecemeal; Noatum Terminals, Noatum Shipping and Noatum Logistics.
He eventually managed to place the group as a whole in the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund through Bank of America, despite initially lowering the price he wanted.
The fund’s interest in the Arab country is primarily financial rather than proposing a change in management, as evidenced by the fact that Noatum will retain its current management team. Moreover, most of the dockers currently operating in the Asturian ports of Avilés and Gijón belong to the Algeposa group, which owns two other companies in addition to its maritime division; railway and logistics services in industrial facilities.