AD Ports unit buys customs solutions company TTEK for $26m

AD Ports Group’s digital arm Maqta Gateway has bought TTEK, a developer of border-control solutions and customs systems, for $26.7 million as it expands its digital trade solutions portfolio.

Maqta Gateway is acquiring 100 per cent of TTEK with an up-front payment of $17.1 million, AD Ports said yesterday in a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.

TTEK’s solutions use more than 1.5 million risk indicators and artificial intelligence predictive modelling to enhance border-security controls and support customs and immigration agencies. Maqta Gateway aims to use TTEK’s research and development centre in Vietnam and its extensive expertise in customs and border modernisation solutions across Africa, the Middle East, North America and Australia to strengthen its service offering, the filing said.

“TTEK’s existing trade expertise in the Middle East supports the group’s ambition to widen its digital trade solutions within the region,” Capt Mohamed Al Shamisi, managing director and group chief executive of the AD Ports Group, said. “The near-term pipeline includes international markets that are strategically important to the group.”

Established in 2006, AD Ports Group has been expanding its operations globally. Last month, it signed a 30-year concession with Egypt’s Red Sea Ports Authority to develop and operate a multipurpose terminal at Port Safaga to boost operations in the country.

In January, the company signed a partnership with Kazakhstan’s state energy company KazMunayGas and a preliminary accord with the country’s Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development to co-operate in the development of a national marine fleet and coastal infrastructure in the Caspian and Black Seas.

Earlier this month, AD Ports signed a $2 billion deal with a syndicate of 13 regional and international banks to strengthen its financial position. TTEK, which is based in Barbados, is on track to deliver revenue of about $8.2 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of about $2.3 million for the 2023 financial year, the filing said.

The deal is subject to the completion of condition precedents within the next 45 days.

“Incorporating TTEK’s cutting-edge predictive-technology-based solutions into our Single Window solution will improve border security, trade facilitation, customs revenue management and more, thereby strengthening the group’s value proposition as a Single Window solution provider,” said Noura Al Dhaheri, chief executive of Maqta Gateway.