Papo Maritime sole bidders for Eilat Port

The bidding process had been delayed twice in recent months amid complications and efforts by the state to ease the conditions of the bidding.
 
Papo Maritime Ltd., a shipping firm owned by brothers Avi, Rafi and Joseph Nakash, submitted last week a NIS 15 million deposit guaranteeing its bid for the port, the only bid in the tender for the privatization of Eilat Port Company Ltd.
 
The two other firms that had shown an interest in bidding − the Gold Bond Group controlled by Shlomo Shmeltzer and Gadot Chemical Tankers and Terminals Ltd., controlled by Yosef Maiman, failed to do so, effectively ending their chances.
 
The bidding process had been delayed twice in recent months amid complications and efforts by the state to ease the conditions of the bidding.
 
The Eilat Port handles only about 6% of the goods imported and exported from Israel and focuses mainly on unloading and storing cars from the Far East which accounts for some 70% of the port's activity.
 
The Eilat Port is the first port in Israel that the government has tried to privatize, seeking to increase competition in the sector. The original plan called for the privatization process to be completed by this year.
 
The Finance Ministry said that " privatization was an important step in the port’s future development."