Goldman Agrees to Buy AB Ports for $4.6b

Bloomberg reports that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and its bidding partners agreed to buy Associated British Ports Holdings Plc., after raising their offer to $4.6b. Goldman is buying the port operator with the government of Singapore and a Canadian pension fund. The group's first bid was 730 pence a share in March.

The sale of London-based Associated British Ports is the third takeover of a British harbor owner in the past six months as an increase in world trade and expectations of steady earnings attract investors. DP World, which is owned by the government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in March bought Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. for $6.8 billion after agreeing to sell U.S. operations to overcome opposition from Congress. PD Ports Plc, owner of the English ports of Tees and Hartlepool, was bought in December by Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group, the owner of Australia's second-biggest coal port. Source: Bloomberg