Hutchison Whampoa News

Li Ka-shing to retire after annual general meeting on May 10; will stay on as senior adviser to the group. Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, announced his retirement as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd on Friday, bringing to a close a rags-to-riches story that made him a hero in the freewheeling capitalist hub. Li, 89, will retire after the annual general meeting on May 10, the ports-to-telecoms conglomerate said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse, passing the mantle to his eldest son Victor Li, who was named successor several years ago. While Hong Kong's adoration of Li Ka-shing and his story has waned somewhat in recent years, he is still stepping aside from one of Asia's most outward-looking empires, spanning more than 50 countries and 323,000 employees at last count.

According to a new industry report published by Lucintel, the future of the global marine port and service industry looks good, with opportunities in the marine freight transportation industry. As per a Lucintel study, the global marine port and service industry is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4.7% from 2015 to 2020. The major drivers of growth for this industry are high growth of the marine freight transportation industry and surging demand of containerized and bulk cargo. Increasing global exports, rising customer (Shipping companies) demand, and expansion of new regional trade hubs are the additional factors contributing to accelerated growth.

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.

Gulf of Oman port bids to become transhipment centre for region; to more than double container capacity by 2017. Part of Oman's drive is to industrialise, diversify beyond oil. An advertisement by the highway outside Dubai's massive Jebel Ali Port tells firms they don't need to ship goods through the Strait of Hormuz, the traditional gateway to the Gulf. Instead they can have goods delivered to a port in Oman, outside the Gulf, and bring them into the region by road. "Why go through the Strait when you can go straight to the Gulf," the billboard reads, in a challenge to Jebel Ali, which has become one of the biggest ports in the world by handling many of the region's imports via Hormuz.

Construction of the new 70-hectare container terminal at Port of Sohar begins shortly, operational in 2014. As part of the expansion deal, container-terminal operator Hutchison Whampoa has signed an agreement for developing the 70-hectare container terminal for Oman International Container Terminal which will raise capacity from 800,000 Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 1,500,000 TEU's. Port of Sohar is a deep sea port in the Middle East situated in the Sultanate of Oman, 220km northwest of its capital Muscat. The management of this industrial port lies with Sohar Industrial Port Company SAOC (SIPC), a 50/50 joint venture between the Government of Oman and the Port of Rotterdam. Port of Sohar houses three clusters: logistics, petrochemicals and metals.

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.

The South Australian government expects strong bidder interest in its planned $120 million sale of the state's main ports, but the privatization is facing a political storm. The planned trade sale of the South Australian Ports Corporation has agitated a range of groups, from influential grain growers to the militant dockers union and farmers and tourism operators on the Kangaroo Island resort. The government has seen strong level of interest in the ports at Port Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Port Giles, Thevanard, Klein Point, Wallaroo, and Port Pirie. Hutchison Whampoa, Infrastructure investment group Infratil Australia Ltd., graingrower group South Australian Cooperative Bulk Handling (SACBH), P&O Ports, transport group Toll Holdings Ltd., and Mersey Docks & Harbor Co.

A consortium led by Singapore shipping group Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has put in a $150 million bid for Indonesia's Koja Container Terminal in Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port area. The other members of the group include Singapore government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings, and Indonesian shipping firm Samudera Shipping Line Ltd. Competing against NOL is Hong Kong Tycoon Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Whampoa, according to a report in the Business Times.

A consortium led by Singapore shipping group Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has put in a $150 million bid for Indonesia's Koja Container Terminal in Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port area. The other members of the group include Singapore government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings, and Indonesian shipping firm Samudera Shipping Line Ltd. Competing against NOL is Hong Kong Tycoon Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Whampoa, according to a report in the Business Times.

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.

As heads of state gather in Panama for Dec. 14 ceremonies in advance of the transfer of the Panama Canal on the Dec. 31, the small Caribbean nation of 2.8 million prepares to step out of Washington's shadow. Since the U.S.S. Nashville guaranteed Panama's independence from Colombia in 1903, the U.S. has maintained a military garrison in Panama and kept administrative control of the canal it built across the isthmus. For decades, Panamanian nationalists rallied to the cry of "one flag, one territory," calling the 10-mile (16 km)-wide U.S.-controlled Canal Zone a "stake through the nation's heart." But when that stake finally comes out at noon on Dec. 31 and the 50-mile (82 km) waterway passes to Panama's control, it will wake up to the challenge of full nationhood.

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.

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.

Norwegian software supplier Visma ASA signed an agreement of intent with Hong Kong-based Arena to deliver e-commerce solutions to the shipping industry. Arena, which has Hutchison Whampoa and Electronic Data Systems Corp. as main shareholders, has established an electronic handling system to be used by shipping firms and shipping equipment suppliers. Visma officials said the agreement with Arena included a close integration between Visma's AMOS purchase software and Arena's handling system. More than 500 shipping firms already use AMOS software to manage purchases, officials said.

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.