Hutchison says reported Colombo terminal bid wrong

Hutchison says reported Colombo terminal bid wrong

Related Stories •   Hutchison denies defeat in Colombo terminal bidding war

Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) has moved again to clarify reports surrounding the auction to manage the new 2.4-million-TEU Colombo South Harbor terminal in Sri Lanka saying its reported $162 million bid is incorrect.
   Earlier this week the Hong Kong-based terminals operator said that reports suggesting it had been outbid by a consortium of Aitken Spence and Singapore’s PSA Corp. were “somewhat presumptuous and inaccurate.”
   “We want to point out that the quoted bid price was incorrect,” HPH said today. “However, due to confidentiality reasons and the fact that the tender evaluation process is still ongoing, we are not in a position to comment further on the bid.
   “We understand that, amongst other things, the winner of the bid will be determined by whoever offers the highest guaranteed total financial return on a net present value basis to the Sri Lankan government.”
   HPH is a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (HWL), and has operating rights in a total of 257 berths in 45 ports worldwide. In 2006, the HPH Group handled a combined throughput of 59.3 million TEUs, ranking it number one among its peers.