The Richest Man in Asia Just Bought Israel’s Haifa Port

As part of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel last week, a strategic peak of diplomatic that had never happened before took place on Thursday afternoon.

Biden, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met almost under the auspices of a new group established by the United States, i2u2, to increase entrepreneurial cooperation between the four countries (and might signal between people China that the new strategic forum has been made to fight that has been established by China with Pakistan and Iran).

When the four leaders overcome the limitations of zoom and discuss the need for joint investment in infrastructure, health and food security, this new alliance seems to have produced fruit.

The Kingdom of Infrastructure owned by Gautam Adani, a private friend of Modi and the richest person in Asia, was declared a step winner to privatize the State -Owned Haifa Port, along with the Gadot Company of the company Israel. This followed a great pressure by the United States in China not to submit an offer and after emiratis resigned at the last minute.

Adani Ports offers 4.1 billion shekel which is rather surprising ($ 1.18 billion) for ports – 55 percent more than the second highest offer. This is a much higher price than the first anticipated by the government and has a price ratio to income of 18 (roughly calculated, based on an average of the last three years). As if Adani said: “Move, this is a strategic purchase – and for us the price is less important.”

‘Proud to be in Haifa’

In fact, when local groups who compete to buy a port to hear the prices offered by Adani Ports, they are all backward. “With a gap like that, you understand that this is a completely different soccer game. There is no point in dealing with players who see assets as strategic investments, “said someone who is close to one of the rival bidders.

The Adani company operates 13 sea terminals in India and controls 24 percent of India’s maritime trade. He does not have ownership in the west – So the entry of Israel is a signal to increase maritime traffic between Asia and Europe, and the needs of Asian’s main players will be hub in the Mediterranean.

“It’s nice to win the tender for the privatization of the Haifa Port in Israel with our partner Gadot [which has 30 percent of shares in the port]. Strategic and historical significance for both countries! Proud to be in Haifa, where Indians lead, in 1918, one of the biggest cavalry accusations in military history! “Adani tweeted on Thursday to nearly 638,000 followers.

By recording the accusation of the Indian cavalry in World War I when Indian troops defeated Ottoman, the fourth richest person in the world-adani was worth nearly $ 113 billion-wrapped in an agreement in a historical nationalist aura whose meaning was clear to everyone: when it appeared to buy control interest in the asset Strategic like a port, it is not only a personal agreement but also a political maneuver. Behind the winner of the country’s standing offer, good or bad.

Israel hopes that Adani’s entrance to the local arena will now lead to more Indian investments, especially in the field of energy and renewable defense. Adani, by the way, has collaborated with an aerospace company and the Elbit Systems defense company at the Drone Manufacturing Facility in India.

Another hope, powered by the new Middle East vision, involved the construction of the railroad line from the Harif of Haifa to Jordan. This will be a diplomatic and logistics game-changer, which has been discussed a lot in the past. Now an Indian company is holding a controller interest in Port Haifa and China (through the Shanghai International Port Group) holding controlling interest in the nearby Haifa Bayport container terminal – finally it might come true.

This is even more likely given that the Jordanians might soon have an economic interest in such a link as well. This is because the possibility of Saudi Arabia allowing Muslim pilgrims to fly directly from Israel to Mecca would mean a major reduction in Jordanian income from the Allenby Bridge land crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.