Global Ports Regulatory News (GPH)

Global Ports Holding Plc

Awarded preferred bidder status for Las Palmas Cruise Ports

Global Ports Holding Plc ("GPH" or "Group"), the world's largest independent cruise port operator, is pleased to announce that, following a public tender process, the Port Authority of Las Palmas has awarded preferred bidder status to Global Ports Canary Islands S.L. ("GPCI"), an 80:20 joint venture between GPH and Sepcan S.L. ("Sepcan"), to operate cruise port concessions for Las Palmas Cruise Ports.

The concessions cover the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, port of Arrecife (Lanzarote) and Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), which have tenures of 40 years, 20 years and 20 years respectively. Following successful execution of the concession agreements, GPH, as part of GPCI, will use its global expertise and operating model to manage the cruise port operations in Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

The Group, GPCI and the Port Authority of Las Palmas will now work towards agreeing on the terms of the concession agreements.  The concessions are expected to commence before the end of the current financial year, although there can be no certainty as to the timing or that the final conditions will be satisfied. A further announcement will be made when it is appropriate to do so.

GPH owns 80% of GPCI and Sepcan S.L. owns 20%. Sepcan is a Canary island family-owned company that has been providing services to the port of Las Palmas since 1936 and since 1998 has been focused on mooring/unmooring, luggage handling, ship's provisioning and passenger services. They also specialise in environmental services and maritime pollution prevention.

Emre Sayin, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"I am thrilled that Global Ports Canary Islands has been awarded preferred bidder status for Las Palmas Cruise Ports. On successful conclusion of the concession agreements, these ports will take the total number of cruise ports GPH operates and manages to 22. Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, GPH is continuing to deliver on its strategic ambitions of growing its cruise port network. The addition of these cruise ports will take our cruise passenger capacity to over 15 million passengers per year including minority owned ports."