Hutchison Whampoa Ltd News

The South China Morning Post has reported Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd is mulling the possible sale of a 40 percent stake of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) to a quartet of state-owned mainland China companies. If it goes through, the move would underscore Hutchison’s recent tactic of monetizing port assets to free up capital to support other high-growing businesses. HPH is talking to a consortium of mainland Chinese companies as it is planning to a HK$160 billion ($20.6 billion) stake in its ports business. Hutchison holds an 80 percent stake in HPH, the world's largest container port operator by throughput with a foothold in 52 ports in 26 countries.

Every day, about 17,000 cargo containers enter U.S. ports, yet only one or two percent of them is routinely inspected. Since Sept. 11, government officials and global supply chain experts have been focusing on vulnerabilities and potential solutions to help ensure that weapons of mass destruction are not concealed in international cargo shipments. The formation of a new group of prominent supply chain thought leaders experienced in both the private and public sectors is being announced at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America's annual conference. Organized with assistance from Savi Technology, the Strategic Council on Security Technology is an international assembly of top executives from the world's largest port operators…

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. reportedly plans to seek a secondary listing for the company's shares in New York.

Lloyd Werft shipyard and Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. will reportedly join the Grand Bahama Port Authority to build a $70 million ship repair yard in the Bahamas.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd's deal to expand its container port network to six new countries will not bring big near term gains in revenue and net asset value, but analysts said it offers good long-term growth potential. Hutchison said on Monday it had acquired the overseas ports arm of the Philippines' International Container Terminal Services Inc., bringing 23 container and general cargo berths in Mexico, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Tanzania and Thailand. The Hong Kong conglomerate, controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, has declined to disclose the price, but analyst estimates on the size of the deal ranged from US$240 million to US$542 million. Most estimates were based on the 1999 sale of a 29 percent stake in ICTSI International Holdings Inc (IIHI) for US$70 million to J.P.

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing dismissed suggestions that his company Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. would control the Panama Canal when it begins operating container ports at each end of the strategic waterway. Li was responding to remarks by President Bill Clinton, who said last week that he did not expect any adverse consequences from "the Chinese running the canal". "We cannot possibly control the canal," Li said. Li has strong ties to China. U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns that this could eventually give China effective control of the 51 mile (82 km) long canal once the U.S. military pulls out. The Clinton administration has repeatedly assured them that China will not take it over.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. rejected allegations made by a U.S. senator that it controlled both ends of the Panama Canal, saying it had no influence over the canal’s operation or shipping traffic. “What has been alleged about is totally untrue and unfounded,” said Nora Yong, spokeswoman for Hutchison Port Holdings. The Hong Kong-based company also denied the senator’s allegations it was connected to China’s military. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, last week released a letter sent Aug. 1 to U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen complaining that Hutchison’s operation of container ports at each end of the canal was a security threat and a sign of China’s growing influence over the strategically important waterway.

First-half profits for Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. will be a festival of one-off gains and charges on its sinking telecoms holdings, but core profits will fall sharply as wireless spending offsets growth in energy and infrastructure operations. Hutchison is expected to post a net profit of HK$2.3 billion to HK$19.2 billion (US$295 million-$2.46 billion), depending on the size of provisions it takes on the falling value of Vodafone Plc and Deutsche Telekom, according to brokerage analysts. Hutchison, which has businesses spanning telecoms, container ports, retailing property and energy, will report its results on Thursday. However…

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. would directly hold about 45 percent, not 65 percent, of the phase three of the Yantian container port project in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, a Hutchison official said on Thursday. She added that Hutchison has a majority stake in a foreign entity that would hold a 65 percent stake in the project. Through the investment entity, Hutchison would hold an "effective 45 percent", the official said. Officials at Hutchison's China partner Yantian Harbour Group said on Wednesday that China had allowed Hutchison to take a 65 percent stake in the project, while Yantian Harbour would hold the remaining 35 percent.

President Bill Clinton and Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso tried to smooth over frictions last week over the handing back of the Panama Canal and vowed a "new beginning" in U.S.-Panamanian relations. Discord in recent months has cast a shadow over the Dec. 31 transfer of the canal to Panama's control to end a 96-year military presence in the Central American country. "I emphasized that the military relationship ends on Dec. 31," Moscoso told reporters after a 45-minute meeting with Clinton. Moscoso met for 45 minutes with Clinton to stress that Panama will provide adequate security for the strategic canal after the U.S. gives up control of it on Dec. 31. "Our country is prepared to guarantee the efficient operation of the canal.

Tensions surrounding the turnover of the Panama Canal from U.S. to Panamanian authority are running high. Last week, Hong Kong-based billionaire Li Ka-Shing said he had no intention of taking control of the Panama Canal, as suggested by some U.S. lawmakers. Li was responding for the first time personally to charges by U.S. Senate Majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss) that his company, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., could put a strangle-hold on the strategic waterway. "I have no intention to control the Panama Canal," Li said. The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee is expected soon to discuss the right of a Hutchison subsidiary to run two container ports at the Atlantic and Pacific entrances of the canal.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter symbolically placed the Panama Canal into Panamanian hands last Tuesday with the simple words, "it's yours," granting the tiny Central American nation sovereignty over all its territory for the first time since its birth in 1903. "Today we are gathered in the spirit of mutual respect, acknowledging without question the full sovereignty of Panama," Carter told hundreds of Panamanian and foreign dignitaries gathered under a light rain at the Miraflores Locks at the Canal's Pacific entrance. In what Carter and Panama President Mireya Moscoso called a pivotal moment in the history of the hemisphere, the two leaders signed a symbolic accord marking the Canal's passage to Panama. Under the 1977 Panama Canal Treaties brokered by Carter, the U.S.