The contract to expand La Bajadilla port, awarded in 2011 to Qatari Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani, is definitively rescinded and a new UTE will take over management from September 2026.
The concession for La Bajadilla port in Marbella, which Qatari Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani won in 2011 with the promise of creating a 'second Puerto Banús', has passed to the UTE Marina Internacional de Marbella from 1 September 2026. This has been confirmed by the administrative and judicial process that has lasted fifteen years, according to Diario Sur.
It all began on 27 November 2010, when the Public Agency of Ports of Andalusia (APPA) put the expansion and operation of the marina out to tender. The contracting table chose the offer from the UTE Nas Marbella on 17 May 2011, which was 97% controlled by Al-Thani and had a 3% municipal stake. The plan included an investment of 84 million euros, but it was never executed.
The contract was signed on 1 January 2012 and that same year, the first defaults on the fee and the lack of project submission occurred. After an ultimatum, the Junta de Andalucía initiated the resolution procedure in May 2013, although the sheikh managed to maintain it by paying 1.8 million for the fees of 2012 and 2013 and increasing the share capital by 5.3 million.
Defaults continued. The project's architect, José Seguí, also did not receive his fees, and in June 2015 a court ordered Al-Thani to pay him 3.8 million euros. The Marbella City Council managed in July of that year to order the dredging of the port, at a cost of around 200,000 euros.
The contract was definitively rescinded on 25 November 2016, after more than four years of delay and repeated non-payment of the fee. The other UTE that competed in the tender, Marina Internacional de Marbella, appealed, and in April 2017 the High Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) ruled that Al-Thani's UTE should not have won the competition for not meeting the solvency conditions. The Supreme Court rejected the sheikh's appeal in 2018.
From 1 September 2026, Marina Internacional de Marbella will be the awardee of the contract tendered almost sixteen years ago, marking a new phase for the management of La Bajadilla port.
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