Under fierce pressure from US President Donald Trump, Hong Kong firm Hutchison on Tuesday said it had agreed to sell its lucrative Panama Canal ports to a US-led consortium.
CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd (長江和記實業) said it would offload a 90 percent stake in the Panama Ports Co (PPC) and sell a slew of other non-Chinese ports to a group led by giant asset manager BlackRock Inc.
The sellers are to receive US$19 billion in cash, the company said in a statement.
Photo:: Reuters
Hutchison subsidiary PPC has for decades run ports at Balboa and Cristobal on the Pacific and Atlantic ends of the interoceanic waterway.
However, since taking office in January, Trump has complained that China controls the canal — a vital strategic asset that the US once ran.
“To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” he said in a speech to Congress on Tuesday. “We’re taking it back.”
Trump had refused to rule out a military invasion of Panama to regain control, sparking angry protests and a complaint to the UN by the Central American nation.
In a joint press release with the buyers, Hutchison said the deal was motivated by business, not politics.
“I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,” CK Hutchison comanaging director Frank Sixt said.
“This transaction is the result of a rapid, discrete but competitive process in which numerous bids and expressions of interest were received,” said Sixt, who described the chosen agreement as “clearly in the best interests of shareholders.”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the transaction demonstrated his consortium’s capacity to “deliver differentiated investments for clients.”
“These world-class ports facilitate global growth,” he added.
The Panamanian government, for its part, said the sale was “a global transaction, between private companies, driven by mutual interests.”
It added that an audit launched into the PPC by the Panamanian comptroller’s office that oversees public entities would continue in spite of the sale.
The deal entails 43 ports comprising 199 berths in 23 countries.
CK Hutchison is one of Hong Kong’s largest conglomerates, spanning finance, retail, infrastructure, telecoms and logistics. It is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠).
Shares in CK Hutchison yesterday soared 25 percent in Hong Kong after the sale was announced.
Since 1999, the canal has been run by the Panama Canal Authority — an autonomous entity whose board of directors is appointed by Panama’s president and National Assembly. The 80km-long canal handles 5 percent of global maritime trade, and 40 percent of US container traffic.
Beijing has consistently denied interfering in the canal.
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
WAIT-AND-SEE: Last month’s consumer price index came in at 2.8%, which boosts expectations that the Fed would proceed cautiously to lower inflation sustainably The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting this week, treading carefully amid uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s economic policies, which include spending cuts and sweeping tariffs. Since January, Trump has imposed levies on major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, and on steel and aluminum imports, roiling financial markets and fanning fears that his plans could tip the world’s biggest economy into a recession. The Trump administration has also embarked on unprecedented cost-cutting efforts that target staff and spending, while the US president has promised tax reductions and deregulation down the road. However,
RSS