Hutchison pulls out of Galveston talks

Hutchison pulls out of Galveston talks    Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) has ended its negotiations to lease the Port of Galveston.
   “Hutchison Port Holdings is out,” said Steve Cernak, the port director told the Galveston City Council at their regular meeting on Thursday.
   Earlier this year the port announced that Hutchison and the Carlyle Group were looking at leasing the entire port for 75 years.
   A spokesman for Hutchison refused discuss to pull out of the deal.
   Cernak said that the port still needs to be developed and that there is an “opportunity to bring it to the next level.”
   A report in the Galveston County Daily News said 80 firms answered the port's initial request for proposals, and 17 agreed to enter into the confidentiality agreements required to begin talking.
   But the newspaper quoted an email from Bank of Montreal Capital Markets, the Port of Galveston’s advisor, that noted “while there were many parties that expressed an initial interest in the assets, the HPH/Carlyle team was the only party that offered to defease all of the port's debt, commit to a sizable capital expenditure and provide a mechanism to share in future growth.”