Hong Kong-based conglomerate has agreed to sell its shares in a subsidiary operating near the Panama Canal to a consortium, including Global Infrastructure Partners, a subsidiary of BlackRock Inc.
According to reports, US President Donald Trump alleged Chinese interference with the shipping line operations.
Adebayo Ogunlesi’s GIP acquires the port
Nigerian billionaire Adebayo Ogunlesi’s firm, Global Infrastructure Partners, will operate the deal via collaboration with TIL.
In a filing, CK Hutchison Holdings disclosed that it would sell all shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and Hutchison Port Group Holdings to the Consortium in a deal estimated at almost $23 billion, including $5 billion in debt.
The deal will give the BlackRock consortium control over 43 ports in 23 countries, including Balboa and Cristobal in Panama and others in Mexico, the Netherlands, Egypt, Australia, Pakistan, and elsewhere.
The US built and gave up the port to Panama
About 70% of the sea traffic crossing the Panama Canal leaves or goes to US ports. The New Telegraph reports that the US built the canal in the early 1900s as it sought means to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. The US government gave up control of the waterway to Panama on December 31, 1999, under an agreement signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.
