Puerto Antioquia Wins US$200 Million Finance Package from IDB Invest
Colombia President Ivan Duque announced October 11 during a visit to Washington, DC, that the proposed “Puerto Antioquia” ocean freight port near Turbo, Antioquia just won another US$200 million in financing from the Interamerican Development Bank’s “IDB Invest” group.
The project – now estimated to start-up in the second half of 2024 — has a total estimated cost of US$672 million, of which IDB Invest is putting-up a US$150 million in equity plus “mobilization of US$50 million of funds under administration of IDB Invest, which offers a long-term financing of 17 years not otherwise available in the [private equity] market, and necessary to ensure the financial sustainability of the project,” according to IDB.
The project earlier won a US$110 million term loan from New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (see Medellin Herald July 9, 2020).
The new IDB Invest financing will support “construction, operation and maintenance of Puerto Antioquia, a new multipurpose port facility located in the Gulf of Urabá,” the agency noted.
The project developers already have obtained a 30-year concession contract with Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI).
“Thanks to its geostrategic location and the construction of ‘4G’ [soon-to-open fourth-generation] highways, it will be the port terminal closest to the main production and consumption centers of the country, becoming a key infrastructure for strengthening Colombian foreign trade,” IDB noted.
The project also has lined-up “mezzanine financing from Global Infrastructure Partners and loans of US$193 million from Colombian local banks,” IDB added. Puerto Antioquia also has an environmental license and enjoys Special Permanent Free Zone status.
Among Puerto Colombia’s project sponsors: international shipping company CMA CGM, the Colombian port development company Puertos, Inversiones y Obras (PIO SAS), the European construction company Eiffage and Colombian banana-exporting companies Agrícola Santamaría, Banafrut, C.I. Unibán and C.I. Tropical.
The project features a 16.5-meters-deep ocean draft to a marine platform including 1,340 linear meters of dockage, all connected to a 3.8-kilometers-long viaduct to a 38-hectares shoreside parcel, which will include “logistical and technological facilities necessary for the storage of general cargo, bulk, vehicles and refrigerated and dry containers,” according to the funding agency.
“IDB Invest has promoted the alignment of Puerto Antioquia with the highest international standards in socio-environmental matters, which also means that the project responds to the need to implement sustainable, safer and more efficient transport infrastructures, which contribute to improving global indicators, such as the Sustainable Development Goals,” according to the agency.
Puerto Bahía Colombia de Urabá S.A. is the formal entity holding the concession contract with ANI for the ocean-freight terminal project.
The port initially will move an estimated volume of 7 million tons of cargo per year. “Due to its strategic location in the southeast of Urabá, the Colombian Caribbean coast, it will reduce the distance between the port and the main centers of production and consumption of the region by more than 350 kilometers,” according to the agency.
