Saudi Fund Pursues 25-Year Port Deal in South Africa as Gulf Capital Expands African Logis

Red Sea Gateway Terminal’s attendance at a prospective bidders’ meeting in Cape Town on Thursday signals that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is pushing further into African logistics, with a 25-year operating concession at the Port of Cape Town now under active evaluation.

RSGT, the Saudi ports operator partly owned by the PIF, is weighing a bid for the Duncan Dock Precinct concession as part of a broader capital deployment strategy across African ports and freight networks. The company runs Saudi Arabia’s largest container terminal and holds the distinction of being the kingdom’s first privately funded terminal operator. Bids are due by November 20.

The prize on offer is a 25-year operating and refurbishment contract for one of two multipurpose terminals at the port. South Africa’s state-owned Transnet National Ports Authority is seeking a private operator to expand cargo-handling capacity and modernise infrastructure to accommodate rising volumes of containerised, dry-bulk and break-bulk cargo. The current lease expires next year.

The economic case for intervention is stark. The Port of Cape Town was ranked the world’s worst-performing container port last year by the World Bank and S&P Global, a designation that has pushed Transnet toward private-sector partnerships. The state-owned logistics company has already introduced a predictive wind model to reduce weather-related disruptions and a digital cargo-planning platform to address persistent bottlenecks. Those measures reflect the scale of the problem: South Africa’s economy has grown by less than 1% annually over the past decade, with inefficient transport infrastructure repeatedly cited as a drag on investment and trade.

For RSGT, Cape Town is not an isolated opportunity. Gagan Seksaria, the company’s Director of Global Investments, confirmed the operator has also explored bidding for a fresh-produce terminal at the Port of Durban, suggesting a multi-port strategy rather than a single concession play.

Meanwhile, the broader pattern of Gulf capital flowing into African logistics provides the context for RSGT’s interest. Gulf states have invested more than 100 billion dollars across the continent over the past decade in sectors including energy, agriculture and logistics. UAE-based DP World illustrates the trajectory, currently expanding Mozambique’s Maputo Port and developing the Democratic Republic of Congo’s first deep-water port. RSGT’s potential entry into South Africa would extend that footprint to one of the continent’s most strategically significant trade gateways.

The investment logic is straightforward. Port capacity constraints and efficiency gaps in African markets create both operational challenges and the conditions for meaningful returns on capital. South Africa’s infrastructure deficiencies, long-standing and well-documented, represent exactly the kind of gap that patient, long-horizon capital from sovereign-backed operators is structured to exploit.

Whether RSGT converts its attendance at Thursday’s meeting into a formal bid will become clear on November 20, and with it, whether Gulf capital takes a direct stake in reshaping South Africa’s freight economics.