THE ANALYST: Govt. Privatizes Free Port Soon -

The Chairman of the National Investment Commission, Dr. Richard Tolbert, has reportedly confirmed that bidding authorities in Monrovia would release, this week, the result of the bidding process to operate and maintain the Freeport of Monrovia.
If that happened, the nation’s biggest seaport and gateway to the outside world would be in private hands – perhaps modernized and relevant to the nation’s economic recovery process and made more serviceable to the Liberian people.
Sources said they were certain that the results would be released on schedule because the committee reviewing the proposals of the two bidding companies – the Bollore Group, a leading company in port management and operation, and APM Terminals, a port operation company based in the Hague – has substantially completed analyses of the bidding offers.
Of the two bidders, the sources, the Bollore Group has offered the highest amount in the tune of US $210 million, which it feels is suitable to undertake the kind of work needed to modernize the port and also to generate the needed revenue.
Port experts have hinted that under its present state of degradation, it would take some US $200 million to modernize the Freeport of Monrovia under a 20 to 25-year contractual management contract.
They said this was especially true if the modernization takes the form of infrastructural improvement and the provision of modern port equipment to provide basic and high-demand services to the international shipping community.
According to sources, the Bollore Group, considering the financial threshold, has offered a US $210 million investment package to bring the Freeport of Monrovia to the required modern standard.
They said the Bollore Group’s investment would cover areas of the port that are in dire needs of repair and modernization.
The group has offered, the sources revealed, US $100 million for equipment, being fully aware that such a project cannot be successful without modern equipment or state of the art equipment. For the construction of the quay, Bollore has offered US $60 million; and for other infrastructure, civil, and related works – including communication, its systems, training, capacity building – it has earmarked US $50 million.
This makes the total investment package of US $210 million, an amount port experts say is far above what should be the threshold package.
With a US a package of over the threshold US $200 million, according to the experts, the Freeport become a modernized port ready to compete with such regional preferences as the Port of Abidjan.
Reports say the secret behind the modernization and serviceability of the Abidjan Port is that the Bollore Group has signed a management contract with the Ivorian government and port authority since 2004 to reverse its then deteriorating standards.
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According to the report records show that the Port of Abidjan is the most functional, up to date, and profitable port by far and for sure, in West Africa and on the Continent of Africa comparatively.
A Bollore source has meanwhile noted that believing that the port is strategic, the group saw the need make the offer that believe will make the Freeport of Monrovia a strategic global partner in the international logistics chain in the region.
As a strategic global partner, the Bollore sources said, the port would generate increased revenue by providing services to larger vessels, and certainly but critically, introducing new shipping lines.
The sources said that Bollore, which has guaranteed the services of large vessels upon the modernization of the port, believed that additional service would stimulate competition at the Freeport of Monrovia, which is currently not the case.
As much as they stimulate competition, they said, improved condition at the port would also certainly benefit Liberian shippers, seafarers, and consignees.
They said a significant advantage the Bollore Group’s package brings to the bidding competition, investment port’s General Cargo handling area.
“The Bollore group has a long-term vision and commitment for Liberia and its company in Liberia, UMARCO and the port sector,” said one Bollore source.
According to the source who preferred not to be named, the group is prepared, as it has done in other countries in Africa, to increase its investment in related sector of the transportation chain, by linking other ports of Liberia to the operation to the Freeport of Monrovia or by developing these ports’ transport facilities.
Not much is known about the background and investment package of Bollore Group’s bidding competitor, APM Terminals of The Hague, but reports said Bollore was in a better position to snatch the bid.
The Bollore Group, a Paris-based French investment and paper-energy-plantations-logistics conglomerate, is basing its bid on having a wide range of experience and know-how of break bulk, timber products, bulk, vehicle, project, oil and gas-related cargo handling virtually, across many African ports within its global network.
The group presently through one of its partners, SETV operates the port of Abidjan following the signing of a concession in October 2004. The group now has new branches in Namibia, Djibouti , Mauritania , Maputo, and Ethiopia .
Statistics of the operation in 2008 show a turnover of 75 Euros, with 309 permanent employees as well as intensive training program with a yearly budget above 500,00 Euros. The group has its presence in 41 countries, with more than 200 agencies and 16,650 permanent staff.
Financially, sources said it earns 1.600 Euros annual income and more than 200 million Euros investment; five million square mile of warehouse space.
Source: The Analyst