Abu Dhabi’s quiet takeover of Egypt’s ports: Why turn to an Emirati company?

Abu Dhabi Ports Group (ADP) has set its sights on one of Egypt’s oldest container operators. The Emirati state-owned group announced an acquisition offer that would give it control of Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling Company (ALCN), a firm founded by the Egyptian state in the 1980s and long regarded as a pillar of the country’s port sector.

The bid is the latest step in a rapid expansion. In just a few years, ADP has stitched together a growing portfolio of transport-related concessions in Egypt, striking deals with both the government and private firms across ports, logistics and maritime services.

As Egypt’s public finances tighten and global port operators grow more selective, officials say the pool of credible partners has narrowed sharply, leaving Abu Dhabi less a preferred choice than a practical one.

Critics say the group’s reach now extends well beyond ALCN, raising concerns about the concentration of strategic concessions in a single foreign operator, and about how accommodating some of the contract terms appear. Officials counter that Egypt had little choice: alternatives, they argue, were scarce, and ADP was often the only bidder able to meet the state’s technical and financial demands.

A rapid ascent

Founded relatively recently in 2006 and owned by the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund (ADQ), ADP has expanded strikingly across ports and logistics.

Its global footprint now stretches from Egypt to Congo, and from Pakistan in Asia to Spain in Europe, among other markets.

In Egypt, the group established its presence in 2022 through a deal that drew wide attention: acquiring 70% of International Associated Cargo Carrier (IACC), a well-known ports and shipping company dating back to Egypt’s era of economic liberalization. IACC’s late founder, businessperson Mostafa El Ahwal, was one of the sector’s prominent names.

The following year, the Emirati group continued to hunt for new opportunities, this time through negotiations with the government.

Press reports spoke of talks over concessions in Egyptian ports, and by the end of 2023, the group secured a concession to build and manage the superstructure^(*) for the Safaga 2 container terminal.

The group’s ambitions did not stop there.

In 2024, it obtained another concession to manage three cruise-ship terminals in Safaga, Hurghada, and Sharm El-Sheikh.

In addition, the company has struck multiple deals through its subsidiaries.

A few weeks ago, Transcargo International signed a memorandum of understanding with the Transport Ministry to build and operate a multipurpose terminal at Sokhna Port. Transcargo International is affiliated with IACC, in which Abu Dhabi holds the largest stake.

Earlier, in 2024, another group subsidiary, Noatum, acquired the Egyptian shipping services company Safina.

ADP’s large stake in ALCN was acquired in two stages. First, a sister company, Alpha Oryx, picked up 32% of the state-owned firm. Second, ADP itself directly bought the 19.3% stake held by the Saudi Egyptian Investment Company.

As a result, press reports describe the group’s current acquisition offer for a controlling stake as largely a formalization of an existing reality: through two affiliated entities, it already controls more than 50% of the company.

Abu Dhabi’s deals are not stopping, and more concessions are in the pipeline.

In 2026, the group is expected to receive a concession to manage the superstructure of two terminals at Sokhna Port: a roll-on/roll-off car terminal and a passenger terminal.

The group has also submitted an offer to manage, operate, and maintain the maritime passenger terminal at Alexandria Port for 15 years. It is also exploring opportunities to manage an integrated logistics complex there.

Beyond these concessions, Abu Dhabi’s footprint also extends to projects that benefit indirectly from transport infrastructure.

These include investments at Arish Port to build six silos for cement export and the allocation of about 20 square km of land in the Suez Canal Economic Zone under a usufruct arrangement to establish an integrated industrial zone east of Port Said.

Why has the government turned to Abu Dhabi?

Several factors, officials say, help tip the balance in Abu Dhabi’s favor when it comes to transport concessions in Egypt.

In container handling, for example, the government trusts the company’s ability to generate strong revenues for the terminals it manages, given its acquisition of El-Ahwal’s shipping company, IACC.

Safaga 2 was awarded to the group after officials confirmed it had a shipping line capable of meeting the minimum annual throughput specified in the contract.

That line is the IACC-affiliated service operating at Adabiya Port, which handles more than 100,000 containers annually and provides regular maritime services linking the Egyptian market to regional destinations, according to a Transport Ministry source who spoke to Al Manassa on condition of anonymity.

The decision to select Abu Dhabi for the cruise-terminal concessions was also driven by its tourism activity, the source said.

The cruise-terminal segment does not attract the same level of interest from global companies as container terminals do, leaving the Emirati group among the few available options.

In the Transport Ministry official’s account, the Emirati group has offered the strongest bids to manage Egyptian infrastructure.

Abu Dhabi’s entry into the Alexandria logistics-zone project was, the source said, a fallback option after an earlier concession was awarded to an alliance including ENPPI, SIAC, China Communications Construction Company and China Road & Bridge Corporation.

That deal, however, collapsed when the consortium failed to submit credible technical and financial bids within the agreed timeframe.

In the official account, the episode illustrates a broader principle. The choice of operator, the source stressed, is not a matter of nationality—Egyptian or Gulf-based—but of execution. The same criteria, he said, are applied across projects, not only at ports.

Risks of concessions and privatization

Mohamed Ali, the founding dean of the College of Transport at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport, criticized the concentration of concessions in the hands of Abu Dhabi Ports Group.

He said it contradicts the principle of competitiveness that the sector needs to achieve the best outcomes, especially since some concessions are long term, giving the company’s policies in Egypt an impact over decades.

The Safaga 2 concession runs for 30 years, while the East Port Said logistics and industrial zone concession runs for 50 years.

Ali warned in remarks to Al Manassa that the concessions may be granted on lenient terms. “The announced investments in Safaga 2 do not match the length of the period,” he said. “It would have been better to grant it in exchange for greater obligations, such as building the terminal from the ground up, rather than limiting it to the superstructure and operations only.”

While the government frames port concessions as part of its plan to boost foreign investment, Maye Kabil, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said local investment could be more profitable for the economy over the long term.

“The investments the Emirati company is injecting, whether in buying cranes or operating systems, remain limited compared with the size of returns the state could have achieved if these projects had been assigned to local companies,” Kabil told Al Manassa.

“In the end, it transfers profits abroad, which significantly reduces the effective return for the Egyptian economy.”

Kabil criticized the government’s policy of giving up ownership stakes in profitable companies, such as the state-owned ALCN, despite their accumulated market experience that could have been leveraged to operate terminals.

She noted that selling government stakes in profitable firms has enabled significant gains for buyers. The Saudi Egyptian Investment Company, owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, made profits of about $152 million after buying its stake in ALCN in 2022 and then selling it to ADP in 2025.

In response, the Transport Ministry source defended the concessions granted to ADP, saying their primary goal is to maximize the value of Egyptian assets.

He said the state remains committed to retaining what it believes it can manage efficiently.

The source said the Emirati group offered more than two years ago to buy stakes in the state-owned Port Said and Damietta container handling companies. But the ministry refused, based on the state’s conviction it could maximize their value without giving up ownership.

He added that the government imposed conditions on Abu Dhabi similar to those in concessions granted to other global companies.

“The ministry will take delivery of the Safaga 2 terminal after parliament approves the agreement. The works must be completed within a maximum of 18 months,” he said. “These are the same timeline and procedures previously granted to the operators of the Tahya Misr container terminals in Alexandria and Damietta.”

In recent years, Egypt’s port strategy has come to rest on two pillars: an expanding reliance on foreign operators and an accelerating push toward privatization. Whether this approach delivers efficiency without eroding control—and whether the gains ultimately outweigh the costs—will become clear only over time.

---

(*) Superstructure refers to the above-ground structures and facilities needed to load, unload, and move containers.