Port of Barcelona extends a cruise concession to 2050 for a new terminal

The Port of Barcelona's management board extended the cruise concession of Creuers del Port de Barcelona to 2050 on 30 October, in return for a €104.5 million investment in a new public Terminal C and related infrastructure, the port said.

Global Yatırım Holding, the Istanbul-listed parent of Global Ports Holding, told the Public Disclosure Platform the same evening that its indirect subsidiary had notified it of the approval of the amended concession agreement for Barcelona Cruise Port. Under the amendment, the concession, originally set to expire in 2030, runs until 2050 with an option to extend it until 2053, the holding said.

The concession had been due to run until 2030 and could be extended to 2033, the port said. The revision covers the operation of passenger Terminals A and B and lets the concession holder build a new Terminal C. Operations at the current Terminal C cease on 1 November, after which the building will be emptied and demolished. Once the new terminal enters service, Terminals A and B will be demolished too.

The new terminal will cover 11,253 square metres on the site of the current one, with photovoltaic generation and onshore power supply so that ships can connect to the electricity grid at berth. The project also moves the roundabout that gives access to Adossat wharf and adds roads, intermodal areas and a new passenger walkway for boarding and disembarking. The terminal will be public, open for general use, and more than €50 million of the €104.5 million goes on the building itself, the port said.

The decision applies an agreement that the port and Barcelona City Council signed in July 2025 to cut the cruise terminals on Adossat wharf from seven to five. Under that agreement, four terminals stay privately owned, the current D, E, G and H, and the new Terminal C is the public one, with capacity for 7,000 passengers at any one time and priority for home port cruises and small vessels.

The same agreement set out a mobility plan around the terminals, including doubling the Porta d'Europa bridge to Adossat wharf for €90 million and an urban corridor along the Montjuïc coastline for about €10 million. All its actions together were put at €185 million of public and private investment, the port said at the time.

The port will then rebuild a 660-metre stretch of Adossat wharf that is more than 70 years old. The works will be put out to tender in the coming months and are expected to start late in 2029, with a construction period of 24 months and a budget of €42 million, the port said.

For Global Yatırım Holding's shareholders, the KAP filing is the formal notice. It sets out the investment, the terminal's size and the new concession dates, and gives no financing plan for the €104.5 million. Other Istanbul-listed holdings have also used the platform for portfolio moves in recent days, such as Marmara Holding's sale of its Polisan Kansai stake, while Turkish maritime companies have been raising money, as in Sanmar's €22.5 million EBRD loan to expand production of electric tugboats.