Abu Dhabi’s AD Ports Buys Into Brazil Grain Terminals in Record Deal

BRAZIL · BUSINESS

A Gulf port giant has chosen Brazil for the biggest acquisition in its history — a bet on the country’s central role in feeding global commodity markets.

A record deal for Brazilian grain terminals

AD Ports Group, the ports-and-logistics company controlled by Abu Dhabi, has agreed to acquire control of Corredor Logística e Infraestrutura — known as CLI — a Brazilian operator of grain and sugar terminals, in a transaction valued at around R$4.2bn ($835m). The deal is the largest acquisition in AD Ports’ history and marks the Gulf group’s entry into Brazil. The sellers are the private-equity manager IG4 Capital and Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management, which had jointly controlled CLI on a 50/50 basis; according to the reporting, IG4 secured roughly four times its dollar investment and Macquarie about twice.

What CLI brings

CLI is one of Brazil’s leading independent operators of agricultural-export infrastructure, with terminals at the ports of Santos, the country’s largest, and Itaqui in the north. The business handled 17 million tonnes of bulk agricultural cargo in 2025, generating $178m in revenue and $98m in adjusted core earnings. Through the deal, AD Ports also gains indirect control of CLI’s southern arm, in which the Brazilian company holds an 80% stake. For AD Ports, the assets slot into an “agrifood” strategy and a push to be present along the supply chains that move soy, corn and sugar from producing regions to export markets.

Why Abu Dhabi is betting on Brazil

The logic is Brazil’s weight in global agriculture. As one of the world’s biggest exporters of soy, sugar and other commodities, the country offers Gulf buyers a strategic foothold in food supply chains at a time of heightened focus on food security. The acquisition reflects a broader pattern of Middle Eastern capital flowing into Brazilian infrastructure and agribusiness, drawn by long-life, cash-generating assets tied to export demand. For AD Ports specifically, owning the terminals — rather than simply shipping through them — deepens its position in a trade it already touches through its global port network.

What happens next

The transaction still depends on customary closing conditions, including clearance from Brazil’s antitrust authority and its waterway-transport regulator. For IG4 and Macquarie, the sale caps a multi-year investment that began when they assembled CLI’s terminal portfolio, including assets acquired from the rail operator Rumo at the port of Santos. For Brazil, the entry of a major Gulf operator into its export-logistics backbone is a vote of confidence in the infrastructure that underpins the country’s commodity trade — and a sign that global investors continue to see value in the assets that move its harvests to the world.