CK Hutchison is in talks with a “major strategic investor from China” to join the BlackRock-Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) consortium in their planned $23 billion purchase of Hutchison’s non-China terminals, the Hong Kong conglomerate confirmed Monday.
Hutchison, whose businesses include ports, telecoms, real estate and retail, did not provide details on the Chinese investor, although it is widely thought to be Cosco Shipping Holdings.
Cosco’s potential involvement follows speculation the Chinese government was pushing for a Chinese shipping group to join the BlackRock-TiL group as a condition of Beijing giving regulatory approval to the deal, announced in March.
TiL is the terminals division of Gianluigi Aponte’s Mediterranean Shipping Co. The deal would also make MSC/TiL the world’s biggest terminal operator, with throughput volumes of more than 130 million TEUs, according to Drewry.
Hutchison’s comments about Chinese involvement were made in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange following the weekend expiry of the 145-day exclusive negotiating period Hutchison had with BlackRock-TiL. Despite the end of the exclusivity period, Hutchison said it “remains in discussions with members of the consortium with a view to inviting a major strategic investor from [China] to join as a significant member of the consortium.”
“Changes to the membership of the consortium and the structure of the transaction [will be needed for the deal] to be capable of being approved by all relevant authorities,” Hutchison added in the statement.
It gave no deadline for the changes to be finalized. Instead, the company said it “intends to allow such time as is required for such discussions to achieve” the alterations.
Details please refer to the JOC news.
Source: JOC