CK Hutchison sells Panama ports to BlackRock

CK Hutchison (0001), the Hong Kong-based conglomerate, agreed to sell control of a unit that operates ports near the Panama Canal.

A consortium including BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Terminal Investment reached a deal in principle to acquire units that hold 80 percent of the Hutchison Ports group, which operates 43 ports in 23 countries. The consortium will also acquire 90 percent of Panama Ports, which operates the two ports in Balboa and Cristobal. The transactions will deliver cash proceeds of US$19 billion (HK$148.2 billion) to CK Hutchison, the company said Tuesday in a statement.

The sale does not involve any interest in Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which operates ports in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, as well as South China, or any other ports in Mainland China, the company said.

Panama’s government had been weighing whether to cancel its contract with CK Hutchison to operate the ports, Bloomberg reported last month.

Hutchison has run the ports in Panama’s Balboa and Cristobal under a concession that was first signed in 1997 and, in 2021, extended until 2047.

Other ports in the canal are operated by firms from the US, Taiwan and Singapore.

Agencies