French container line CMA CGM could purchase port container terminals being sold by HK Hutchison of Hong Kong, a company executive said.
“It’s very important for the industry, and it’s important for us as a major player in this sector,” CMA CGM Chief Financial Officer Ramon Fernandez said during the company’s earnings presentation this week. “We are present in 65 terminals around the world so we are following this operation very closely and are naturally interested in participating.”
The Marseilles-based company, which is controlled by the Saade family, is the world’s third-largest container carrier and also operates dozens of terminals of its own, including seven in the United States.
Chief Executive Rodolphe Saade was in the Oval Office in March when President Donald Trump announced a wide-ranging initiative to rejuvenate the domestic maritime sector. Saade at the time said his company would invest $20 billion over four years in U.S. shipping.
Prior to that, Trump had threatened that the U.S. would take back the Panama Canal, where Hutchison owns terminals at the ports of Cristobal and Balboa, alleging China was controlling the waterway.
Not long after, Hutchison (0001.HK) announced plans to sell more than 40 container terminals under its Hutchison Port Holdings unit to a consortium led by BlackRock, the U.S. asset manager, that includes Geneva-based shipping line MSC, for $23 billion.
After the exclusivity deadline for the deal passed, Huchison this week said it was including a “major investor,” thought to be China’s Cosco, after Beijing threatened to block the sale unless a Chinese company was brought into the transaction.
Huchison, which is controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, also said it would not sell its Panamanian terminals.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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