Billionaire Li Ka-shing also at negotiation table for $150b sale of Panama Canal port stake

Li Ka-shing, the 96-year-old Hong Kong billionaire, was also at the negotiation table in CK Hutchison's (0001) mega ports sale deal with a consortium led by BlackRock that will lead to cash proceeds of nearly HK$150 billion for the firm, the Financial Times reported.

Li and his son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi reportedly took part in negotiations with the top of their counterparties – BlackRock’s chief executive Larry Fink and Global Infrastructure Partners chief Adebayo Ogunlesi.

The transaction talks lasted just a few weeks and were largely conducted through video conferences and telephone calls, the FT said. 

Diego Aponte, president of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, has a close relationship with CK Hutchison’s port business as a top customer and that connection also helped secure the US consortium’s bid, the report said. 

The deal was being planned shortly after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration when he vowed to take back control of the Panama Canal, it said. This prompted the local conglomerate’s executives to act as they saw the growing risk of escalating issues, according to the FT.

They believed it would be unwise just to sell the politically sensitive Panama ports, the report said. Instead, they decided to exit vast swaths of the ports business that has been a central part of its identity since the 1990s.

STAFF REPORTER