Does a familiar name stand behind Zadar’s Gaženica bid?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of February, 2018, only one bid has arrived at the international public tender for the management of Zadar’s mega project, the 20-year concession on Gaženica port is only wanted by the Zadar International Port Operations d.o.o. (ZIPO), founded in Zagreb last year.
According to court records, the founder of this company is Global Ports Netherlands BV from the Netherlands, but it actually refers to Turkish capital.
The Port Authority Director of Zadar, Robert Škifić, didn’t want to provide any information on the details of the offer or on the bidder until all of the documentation on all of the terms and conditions is properly and expertly checked over.
Despite it being as yet unofficial, Zadarski.hr has stated that Global Ports Holding (GPH), the largest company for the development and management of ports for cruise ships in the world, with more than seven million passengers per year and a 25 percent annual share in the Mediterranean, stands behind this offer.
They manage an impressive portfolio of 13 cruise ports, including some of the largest and most well known, such Barcelona port. As a concessionaire, GPH also manages ports in Europe and across the world, from Malaga, Lisbon, La Valetti, Cagliari, Ravenna, Antalya and Kuşadası, to Singapore and others. It will be known in the next two months whether or not Gaženica will be admitted to that same impressive list.
Two years ago, Turkey’s Global Ports Holding Group established the Dubrovnik Internatonal Cruise Port Investment (DICPI), which competed for the concession of a passenger terminal at Gruž Port. The deal was eventually abandoned and scrapped after the Port of Dubrovnik decided that the formal and legal conditions for concluding the concession agreement with the Turkish-French consortium in question had not been fulfilled.
The company that has participated in the Zadar tender, Zadar International Port Operations, associates the name of Arpak Demircan with this company. In the court register, he is quoted as DICPI President of the Management Board, while within the company that wants the Zadar Terminal, he’s listed as a Board Member.
