During an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Turkish Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu confirmed that Turkey is negotiating with Gulf countries to sell the operating rights for Alsancak Port in the city of Izmir.

This would count as the first major deal under Turkey’s effort to expand foreign investment under its new economic team. “There are investment talks with countries in the Gulf region and Alsancak Port is also in the scope of these investments,” he said, adding: “Our friends met at the deputy minister level". 

Details of the potential buyers or value of the deal have not been released.

The Alsancak port is owned by the Turkish sovereign wealth fund TWF and operated by the national railway company TCDD. According to TCDD, the port has the ability to handle up to 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units of container cargo and 1.4 million tons of general and bulk dry cargo per year.

Future opportunities

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to visit Gulf countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar later this month for potential investment opportunities.  

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The port was supposed to be privatized in 2004 and put out to tender in 2007. A joint venture including Hutchinson Port Holdings and Global Yatirim Holding submitted the top bid of $1.28 billion but a court ruling blocked the sale and the group withdrew. 

Relations between the Gulf states and Turkey have been developing on a positive note recently.

A report by Bloomberg last month revealed that UAE-based banks have been increasing lending to Turkish banks, filling a void that has been left by Western banks amid an increasingly regulated business environment under Erdogan.

A reason that may account for the UAE's support is the improving geopolitical environment which has facilitated business operations with Turkish counterparts. Several changes over the months have resulted in an improvement in business operations, currency exchange agreements, and foreign investments, as well as Emirates NBD’s acquisition of Denizbank AS in 2019.

Turkey signed a $4.9 billion currency swap agreement in 2022 with the UAE to boost its depleted foreign reserves. The year prior, Qatar and Turkey agreed to extend a swap agreement of $15 billion which was originally concluded in 2018.