Turkish cruise port operator Global Yatirim Holding seeks new port investment in 2024.
Mehmet Kutman, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Global Yatirim Holding and Global Ports Holding, stated that they will complete 2023 with an investment of approximately 120 million dollars and that they aim to invest approximately 90-100 million dollars for 2024 and said, “We are mainly focused on port investments and solar power plant (SPP) investments.”
Reminding that Global Yatirim Holding operates in 4 continents and 17 countries, Kutman reported that the group increased its consolidated net profit from TRY 262.2 million to TRY 530.2 million in 9 months of this year compared to the same period of 2022. Total consolidated revenues excluding the IFRIC 12 effect increased by approximately 38 percent in January-September 2023 compared to the same period last year, from TRY 4.6 billion to TRY 6.4 billion, while the holding’s consolidated EBITDA increased by 58 percent to TRY 2.6 billion.
Emphasizing that investments in new port purchases, time extensions of existing ports and port development activities that will provide additional income constitute a significant portion of the total investment amount, Kutman said, “Port investments account for 80 percent of the total investment amount for 2023 and 70 percent for 2024. Looking at the breakdown into domestic and overseas investments, while the share of foreign investments is approximately 48 percent in 2023, we expect this share to be 68 percent in 2024.”
New countries on the radar
Stating that they are the world’s largest cruise port operator with 30 cruise ports, Kutman said: “We continue our efforts to strengthen this position. As the world’s largest cruise port operator, we are working on many new ports. In addition to the Caribbean, we are interested in ports in Australia, China, Japan and the UK. We aim to add some of these to our portfolio in a short time. We also aim to expand abroad with Consus Energy. We continue to evaluate projects in various countries in the Caribbean and Europe.”
Strong demand expected in cruise ports
Stating that while the strong demand for cruise tourism continued throughout the third quarter of the year, bookings continued to hover well above 2019 levels, Kutman continued as follows: “The strong demand for cruise tourism continued to gain strength in Q3. While the occupancy rates of the ships were 95-109 percent in the 2nd quarter, they increased to 110-115 percent in the 3rd quarter. In the case of Global Ports Holding, the average occupancy rate of ships arriving at our ports was 115 percent in August 2023. Demand for 2024 also continues to increase rapidly. We expect over 11.8 million passengers to arrive at our ports between April 2023 and March 2024.
