Portinvest of Ukraine proposes Rijeka port investment

25 Июл

Rijeka, Croatia (PortSEurope) July 24, 2019 – Portinvest, a Ukrainian port management company, is interested in investing in, and possibly becoming a shareholder in, Luka Rijeka d.d., the operator of Adriatic port of Rijeka.

Portinvest prepared a business proposal in April this year with a plan to invest in three of the port’s terminals.

Poland’s OT Logistics is the largest single shareholder in Luka Rijeka with a 26.5% stake, followed by the government in Zagreb, which controls a 25% stake. The port operator registered a loss of almost 29 million kuna (€3.9 million) last year from 1.3 million kuna in 2017.

Rijeka has also seen interest from Chinese investors.

In May this year, Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Darko Horvat said that a delegation of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) was due to visit Rijeka port to visit the May 3 shipyard, operated by the financially troubled Uljanik shipbuilding group.

The Chinese company has been reported as being interested in the May 4 yard in Rijeka and the Pula port based Uljanik Shipyard.

Separately, it was announced this week by HŽ Infrastruktura, the Croatian Railways Infrastructure company, that ten bids had been received for a contract to build part of a €297 million euro ($330.75 million) railway that will connect the Adriatic port of Rijeka with the Hungarian border, and that one of two bids received from Chinese consortia, was the lowest.

The lowest bid was from a Chinese consortium of Sinohydro Corporation Limited and Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 4 co, which offered a price of 2.41 billion kuna ($365 million/€326 million).