Antwerp aims at international stakes

Antwerp has just announced it has its eye on acquiring stakes in foreign projects, and Nico Vertongen, a director of Antwerp’s newly created subsidiary, Port of Antwerp International (PAI), tells Port Strategy why.

Mr Vertongen explains that the move has been sparked partly by market timing. “There are good deals to be had if you have the money,” he says, and Antwerp has, it seems, the cash to go ahead.

But it may also have been a sense of possibilities slipping by. The PAI came from Antwerp’s original consulting arm and Mr Vertongen says that while Antwerp got involved in tenders and projects around the world, “we were conscious that our involvement stopped at the consulting hours”, and so the (then) Antwerp Port Consultancy felt more could be gained “by becoming players in the next level”. In the next few months the PAI is looking to recruit new people with economic and technical qualifications to support its new aim.

While the new body won’t stop its consulting activities, the PAI will now be looking at acquiring stakes in foreign port projects with a reliable rate of return, located in strategically important regions such as the Middle East, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam and Brazil. “These are areas where we have either very clear ambitions or long standing relationships – like Africa – with whom we have very developed services.” He adds that it isn’t exclusive, and PAI will of course look at interesting projects in other areas on both greenfield or brownfield projects. One aim, of course, is to funnel cargo back to Antwerp.

Interestingly, Mr Vertongen says that “the landlord model remains our starting point, although there will need to be a certain degree of flexibility, depending on the project.” He adds PAI is very interested in collaboration with both public authorities and other private companies, such as port operators, shipping lines, consultancy firms or project developers in varying combinations. For each project it will be necessary to choose the most appropriate form of collaboration, he explains.

However, he is keen to add that the PAI will not challenge Antwerp’s core business – “We don’t want to become the competitors of Antwerp’s own clients. There are plenty of other things to do,” he says.

(Source: Port Strategy)