In an unprecedented transaction for the Canary Islands shipping market, the state-owned Arab Bridge Maritime (ABM) consortium — jointly owned by the governments of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan — entered the Canarian logistics sector this September through the acquisition of the passenger and ro-ro vessel Ciudad de Ibiza from the Armas Mead family. The transaction required the prior and amicable termination of the charter agreement held by Alicante-based Baleària, with the vessel’s formal handover to the Red Sea shipowner scheduled for the end of this month.
The vessel, which according to Puente de Mando this week had been operating in cargo service on the busy inter-island route between Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, had no long-term place in the operational plans of the company chaired by Adolfo Utor. As part of the agreed termination, Baleària has fully assumed responsibility for absorbing the crew assigned to the vessel and immediately redeploying them to other units in its regional and inter-island fleet.
ABM’s entry into this asset transfer underscores the international reach of the state-owned conglomerate. Founded in 1985 with the strategic mission of connecting trade between North Africa and Western Asia, the group is owned in equal shares by the Egyptian, Iraqi and Jordanian states. Headquartered at the free port of Aqaba, with direct offices in capitals including Cairo, Amman, Baghdad and Riyadh, the group operates under the leadership of Adnan Alabadleh and has historical capitalization exceeding $81 million.
The group holds the concessionary monopoly on the intercontinental Aqaba–Nuweiba route and diversifies its assets through stakes in Arab Ship Management Company, the Jordan Academy for Maritime Studies, and the management of terminals and desalination plants in the region. The addition of Ciudad de Ibiza reinforces the Arab shipping company’s purchasing pattern in the Spanish market, where it has previously acquired vessels such as Amman (formerly Manuel Azaña) and Sinaa (formerly Volcán de Tejeda). With this latest acquisition, the trilateral holding company is withdrawing leased capacity in order to provide its strategic Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba routes with greater tonnage and directly owned assets.
This information was independently prepared by the Canarymaritime editorial team under exclusively editorial criteria, without commercial compensation or any affiliation with the entities mentioned.
The article Arab state-owned giant ABM makes unusual purchase in the Canary Islands from former Naviera Armas owners was first published on canarymaritime.com.
