Companies & Markets Oct 15, 2026 · 7 min read

A.P. Moller Capital buys Mitsui’s Portek

A Moller-family fund buys seven small-port terminals from Mitsui. A.P. Moller Capital has agreed to buy 100% of Singapore terminal operator Portek from Mitsui, Splash247 reported on 15 October. Portek has interests in seven terminals in six countries and handles about 700,000 containers a year. No price was given. Our view: this is a fund quietly building a network of secondary gateways. It agreed to buy control of Euroports, with more than 50 terminals, just weeks ago. Forwarders using Bejaia, Riga, Valletta or Tanjung Priok should expect new owners to revisit tariffs. Our call: the deal will not close before Q1 2027.

A Moller-family fund is quietly buying the world’s second-tier ports
A.P. Moller Capital has agreed to buy 100% of Portek International, a Singapore-based terminal operator, from Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. Splash247 reported the deal on 15 October. Portek has interests in seven terminals across six countries: Algeria, Gabon, Indonesia, Latvia, Malta and Vietnam. Those terminals handle about 700,000 containers, 7m tonnes of bulk cargo and 90,000 vehicles a year. Portek employs about 1,400 people. The buyer is A.P. Moller Capital’s Emerging Markets Infrastructure Fund II. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal still needs regulatory and other third-party approvals.
Our view: this matters more than its size suggests. It is the latest in a run of deals that show A.P. Moller Capital building a network of secondary ports. These are not Rotterdam or Singapore. They are the gateways where one terminal often handles most of a country’s or a region’s boxes. When that one terminal changes hands, shippers have nowhere else to go. The owner’s plans for prices, equipment and carrier relationships become the port’s plans.

What Portek is

Portek was founded in 1988, according to Splash247. It runs a mix of container, bulk and vehicle terminals rather than big hub ports. The named sites are:

Bejaia Mediterranean Terminal in Algeria

Riga Universal Terminal in Latvia

Valletta Gateway Terminals in Malta

Operations at Tanjung Priok, Jakarta’s main port, in Indonesia

The Gabon and Vietnam sites were not named in the report. Portek also sells port equipment engineering, maintenance and operating services, mainly from Singapore and Indonesia.
This is not the first time Portek has been fought over. In 2011, Mitsui offered SGD 1.40 a share for the company, topping a SGD 1.20 offer from Philippine port operator ICTSI, PortCalls reported that July. ICTSI later withdrew its bid, according to Splash247. By September 2011, Mitsui had bought 99.12% of the shares for $179m, according to PortNews. Fifteen years on, Mitsui is selling the whole business. The 2026 price is unknown, so we cannot say whether Mitsui made money.

The pattern: four deals in about a year

On its own, Portek is a mid-sized deal. Put next to A.P. Moller Capital’s other recent moves, it looks like a strategy.

Euroports. On 25 September, A.P. Moller Capital signed to buy 53.35% of Thaumas, the company that indirectly owns Euroports, Baird Maritime reported. Euroports runs more than 50 deep-sea and inland terminals in 10 European countries and China, and handles more than 70m tonnes of bulk, breakbulk and liquid bulk a year, according to Maritime Executive. (Breakbulk means cargo that moves loose or on pallets rather than in containers, such as steel, timber or project cargo.)

BERGÉ. Last year it bought 51% of the Spanish port and logistics group, according to Splash247.

Globex. It is also pursuing a majority stake in Morocco’s Globex Investissement, Splash247 reports.

Portek. Seven terminals, six countries, announced this week.

The fund behind the Portek deal has a stated plan. When the IFC (International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private-sector arm) put $50m into Emerging Markets Infrastructure Fund II in December 2023, it said the fund was targeting $1bn. It said about 60% would go into onshore transport infrastructure such as ports, storage, roads, rail and warehouses. The money was to be split roughly half in Africa and half in South and Southeast Asia.
The investor list says something too. In January 2024, Germany’s development bank DEG, the IFC and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) all joined the fund, Africa Private Equity News reported. They sit alongside unnamed institutional investors from Europe, the UAE and Asia. At that point the fund had already made investments in three assets. Development banks tend to back long-hold strategies with clear spending plans and environmental targets. The IFC said the fund aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% in its transport assets. We read that as pointing to electrified cranes and yard equipment, which cost money up front. For forwarders, that is one more reason to expect investment first and pricing changes after.
Portek’s Algerian, Gabonese, Indonesian and Vietnamese sites fit that brief neatly. Its Latvian and Maltese terminals sit outside it. It is not yet clear whether those two will stay in this fund, move to another vehicle or be sold on. That is worth watching.
Who is the buyer? The IFC described A.P. Moller Capital as “a part of the A.P. Moller Group.” Maritime Executive describes it as an infrastructure, transportation and energy fund manager, and its backers include the IFC and other outside investors. It is not a shipping line. In our view, that distinction matters to forwarders. A fund wants a return from every carrier that calls. A carrier-owned terminal may favour its parent’s ships.

What the buyer says it wants

A.P. Moller Capital has not been quoted on Portek. But it has been clear about Euroports, and the logic is likely to carry over.
Kim Fejfer, its managing partner and CEO, said that “resilient supply chains and secure trade flows are increasingly essential to economic stability and growth,” according to Maritime Executive. Joe Nielsen, a partner, said the investor planned to “broaden the company’s footprint and attract new customers and volumes,” Baird Maritime reported.
Read plainly, that is a growth plan. More volume, more customers, more sites. For an infrastructure fund, growth usually comes from two levers. One is capital spending: new cranes, more yard space, better gate systems. The other is pricing: getting paid for the improved service. Euroports’ purchase price is even tied to its 2026 EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a common measure of operating profit), Baird Maritime reported. That tells you how closely these buyers watch earnings.
There is one more detail forwarders should note. Euroports owns Manuport Logistics, a freight forwarder active in more than 20 countries, according to Maritime Executive. So once that deal closes, A.P. Moller Capital will control a forwarding business as well as terminals. It is too early to say whether that will shape how its terminals treat other forwarders. But it is a question to ask.

What it means for forwarders and shippers

In the short run, nothing changes. The deal has not closed. Contracts, tariffs and operating teams at Portek’s terminals stay as they are.
Over the next year, here is what we think forwarders should plan for.
Tariff reviews. A new owner paying an undisclosed price will want a return. At small gateways with little competition, terminal handling charges (THC, the fee a terminal charges to load or unload a box) are the obvious lever. Expect reviews, not freezes. Budget for it in quotes on lanes into Bejaia, Riga, Valletta and Jakarta.
Capacity and equipment. The flip side is investment. Funds of this type often spend on cranes and yard systems early. That can cut dwell times, meaning how long a box sits in the terminal. For shippers in Algeria and Gabon, where terminal performance can make or break a schedule, that could be the bigger story.
Carrier neutrality. Because A.P. Moller Capital is a fund, not a carrier, we expect it to court every line it can. That is good news for forwarders who book across several carriers. Watch for new service calls being marketed at Portek terminals once the deal closes.
Bulk and breakbulk. Between Euroports’ 70m-plus tonnes and Portek’s 7m tonnes of bulk, the group is becoming a serious player in non-container cargo. Project cargo forwarders and bulk shippers in Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia will increasingly deal with the same ultimate owner across several ports.
Regional consolidation. If the Globex deal in Morocco goes through, the group will hold assets in both Algeria and Morocco. Add Malta and Spain through BERGÉ, and it has a presence around the western Mediterranean. That gives it more say in how cargo is routed through the region.

Our prediction

Here is our call. The Portek deal will not close before Q1 2027. It needs regulatory and third-party approvals, and Portek’s terminals span six countries. The Euroports seller already expects its approvals only in Q1 2027, according to Baird Maritime. We see no reason Portek, with more jurisdictions, will be faster.
We also expect A.P. Moller Capital to announce at least one more port or terminal deal in Africa or Southeast Asia by mid-2027. The fund’s stated aim is to put most of its money into transport infrastructure in those regions, and the pace of the past year shows it is doing just that.
Finally, we expect at least one Portek terminal to publish revised handling tariffs within six months of the deal completing. Forwarders on those lanes should treat today’s rates as a floor, not a ceiling.

Sources