Harbor of Krefeld - Privatization
The The Port of Krefeld PPP project was sponsored by North Rhine-Westphalia's PPP task force as infrastructure pilot project, this being a real (institutional) public private partnership. The port authority and railway operations, previously been a City-owned business, were transformed into a privately-owned company. In future, the City of Krefeld as public partner and Neuss-Düsseldorfer Häfen GmbH & Co. KG as private partner will participate in Hafen Krefeld GmbH & Co. KG.
The innovative project significantly expands the opportunities of previous PPP projects since not only the economic interests of the City of Krefeld, but also business promotion aspects were taken into consideration. While previously known PPP projects regularly stressed public cost savings, the Port of Krefeld PPP project also allowed for sustainable promotion of the Krefeld business location.
With the new private partner, Neuss-Düsseldorfer Häfen, the Krefeld port will be strengthened as important infrastructure facility in the region. According to the concept of Neuss-Düsseldorfer Häfen, new businesses are supposed to be established on previously undeveloped areas and investments in the port infrastructure will be promoted.
The project was particularly successful since the City of Krefeld will no longer have to assume any more losses for Hafen Krefeld GmbH & Co. KG in the future. While the City-owned business was in the red in the last years, in future the company will be put on a solid economic basis. Investments are now scheduled which will lead to job creation and an increase in the location's attractiveness. In addition to the one-time purchase payments, the City of Krefeld may even count on profits as of 2013.
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek assisted the City of Krefeld in the European-wide procedure to select the strategic partner. We drafted the procedure, prepared the necessary agreements and successfully defended against the review procedure of an unsuccesful bidder. In addition, we registered the cooperation initially at the EU Commission and subsequently at the Federal Cartel Office.
Dr. Ute Jasper, Dr. Rainer Velte, Düsseldorf
