Peninsula Oriental Steam Navigation Co News

Shipping company P&O, reporting its first-half results, said on Tuesday it was to boost its presence in the German cruise sector by buying the remaining 49 percent of Aida Cruises for 115 million marks ($49.9 million). Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. said that it would combine Aida Cruises with its Seetours International Ltd unit, to create a company accounting for around 20 percent of the German cruise sector by number of passengers. "We have two of the best consumer cruising brands and will be in a strong position to exploit the huge potential of the German market," P&O chairman Lord Sterling said in a statement. Meanwhile, the company posted a slight rise in first half pre-tax profit on Tuesday, and said the demerger of its cruise business was proceeding according to schedule.

UK shipping company Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Co Plc said on Thursday its 50 percent owned P&O Nedlloyd joint venture had shown a big jump in third quarter operating profits and the outlook was positive. P&O Nedlloyd's operating profits were $75 million, up $59 million from the third quarter of 1999. P&O also said its P&O Stena Line achieved headline profits of 19.8 million pounds in the third quarter of 2000, up from 14.6 million in the same period of last year.

According to reports, Dubai's royal family sent a delegation to the U.S. today to meet officials such as Senator Hillary Clinton to allay concerns about the emirate's purchase of six U.S. ports as part of its buyout of Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of the state-owned DP World, is heading the team will discuss Dubai's management of P&O operations in the U.S., which include the ports of New York and Baltimore, official said. Democratic Senators Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York are seeking to prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from buying U.S. port operations. A bipartisan group of U.S.