ABP sells U.S. unit for $107.8 million

ABP sells U.S. unit for $107.8 million    The United Kingdom’s Associated British Ports Holdings, subject to a '2.5 billion ($4.7 billion) takeover bid from a Goldman Sachs-led consortium, has sold for $107.8 million its U.S. auto-processing company AMPORTS Inc., to an affiliate of U.S. private equity firm Lincolnshire Equity Fund.
   AMPORTS has six port facilities nationwide, in Jacksonville, Fla.; Brunswick, Ga.; Benicia, Calif.; and three facilities in Baltimore, Md. In 2005, the company made a net profit of $10.5 million on $71.1 million revenue. As of Dec. 31, AMPORTS had net assets of $88.2 million.
   “This is a further example of ABPH successfully executing its strategy of extracting value from non-core assets for the benefit of shareholders, allowing the group to focus on operating its U.K. ports business,” said Bo Lerenius, ABP’s group chief executive.
   ABP is the United Kingdom’s biggest port group, handling 129.3 million tons of cargo at its 21 ports in 2005, giving it almost a quarter of the U.K. market share.
   Earlier this week, a consortium including Goldman Sachs, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and Canadian pension fund Borealis Infrastructure, made a second and much improved '8.10 ($15.15) per share non-binding offer for ABP. The board of ABP is considering the offer and has given the consortium time to undertake confirmatory due diligence. A bid in late-March of '7.30 ($13.65) per share was rejected by the ABP board as “wholly inadequate.”
   ABP’s share price on the London Stock Exchange was 765.5 pence ($14.47) at 11.30 a.m. local time today, just 0.07 percent better than Wednesday’s closing price.