Cosco Pacific Ltd News

China’s Cosco Pacific Ltd. will buy 35 percent of Euromax Terminal Rotterdam BV for 125.4 million euros ($143 million) for shares and loans amid an overseas expansion drive by Chinese companies. Euromax is indirectly owned by Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd. (HPH), which in turn is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. Cosco Pacific will pay 41.4 million euros and assume 84 million euros of debt equivalent to 35 percent of a loan, Cosco Pacificsaid in a statement. Euromax is principally engaged in the business of operating the Euromax Terminal Rotterdam, which is located in Maasvlakte I of the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It is an automatic container terminal which commenced operations in mid-2010.

Cosco Pacific Ltd.'s  first-quarter  ended 31 March 2016 net profit rose 31.4% from a year earlier on the back of a one-off gain. Turnover sank 2.27% yearly to US$129 million. On yearly basis,  its net profit shot up 105 per cent to US$702.7 million last year and the company is considering making more port acquisitions abroad at a time when the mainland's container throughput growth is slowing. The jump in net profit was mainly due to net disposal gains of US$393.4 million from selling its stake in China International Marine Containers in June last year. The first-quarter net profit rose to US$109.06 million from US$82.98 million a year earlier, lifted by a US$59.02 million gain after it completed the disposal of container box leasing operations in March.

Cosco Pacific Ltd. has appointed Zhang Wei as vice chairman and managing director, replacing Qiu Jinguang who has stepped down from the positions with immediate effect, reports Dow Jones. "Qiu Jinguang has resigned as an Executive Director, the Vice Chairman and Managing Director and also resigned as an authorised representative as well as the Chairman of the Executive Committee, the Investment and Strategic Planning Committee and the Risk Management Committee, and a member of the Nomination Committee and the Remuneration Committee due to work commitments, with effect from today (April 27)," says a statement from the company. Zhang, who is 42 years old and joined the Cosco Group in 1995, is currently holding directorships at certain units of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co.

China Shipping Container Lines Co. posted a net loss of 2.9 billion yuan ($448.5m)  in 2015, compared with profit of 1.04 billion yuan in 2014, the nation’s second-biggest container shipping company said in a statement. China Shipping in January had forecast a loss of 2.8 billion yuan for 2015. The revenues also fell 12% to RMB31.83bn from RMB36.08bn previously, the company said. The operating result has been of sign negative for -2.49 billion yuan respect to an operating profit of 1.96 billion yuan in 2014. Both international and domestic volumes were affected, falling 3.6% and 3.4% respectively. Last year the fleet of portacontainer of Chinese CSCL has transported cargo volumes pairs to altogether 7.8 million container teu…

Cosco Pacific Ltd.'s 2015 net profit rose 30% from a year earlier on the back of a write back of a provision. It recommended a final dividend of 22.9 Hong Kong cents a share. The full-year net profit was US$381.6 million compared with US$292.8 million a year earlier. The improved earnings were lifted by a write back of a provision from the sale of its 21.8% stake in China International Marine Containers (Group) Co. Full-year revenue fell 8.3% to US$798.2 million from US$870.1 million the previous year, as the euro and Chinese yuan depreciated against the U.S. dollar during the year. Gross profit from the container leasing, management and sale businesses recorded a 15.7% decrease compared with last year.

China Merchants Holdings (International) Co. Ltd. along with Cosco Pacific Ltd., a unit of China Investment Corp. and Euro-Asia Oceangate will pay US$919.9 million to buy a 64.5% stake in Fina Liman from Fina Holding. Fina Liman is an investment-holding company that owns and operates a port terminal in Turkey. The acquisition gives the consortium access to the terminal of Fina’s subsidiary Kumport. Kumport Terminal is a modern container terminal in the Ambarli Port Complex, which is on the northwest coast of the Marmara Sea on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. The Company, CMHI and CIC Capital, through their respective wholly-owned subsidiaries, hold 40%, 40% and 20%, respectively, of the shares in the Consortium SPV.

European Union state aid regulators have ordered Greece to recover certain illegal fiscal benefits granted to Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) and its parent company Cosco Pacific Ltd, says a report in Reuters. The European Commission found that Greece inappropriately granted tax benefits to Piraeus Container Terminal (PTC) and its parent company Cosco. These include preferential accounting treatment. The money must be paid back to the Greek state. The Commission also said Greek authorities are expected to stop granting these advantages to PTC and Cosco from now on. "The companies now need to pay back the advantage received to the Greek state.

European Union state aid regulators have ordered Greece to recover certain illegal fiscal benefits granted to Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) and its parent company Cosco Pacific Ltd. The European Commission said the measures, which breached EU rules, included tax exemptions and preferential accounting treatment. "The companies now need to pay back the advantage received to the Greek state. To avoid further distortions of competition, the Greek authorities are also expected to cease granting these advantages to PCT from now on," the Commission said. By Foo Yun Chee

COSCO Pacific Ltd. reported its net profit rose 3.7 percent in 1999 from a year earlier to $134.08 million and added that it would step up investment in 2000. The company, an indirect unit of China's largest shipping firm China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co., engages mainly in container leasing and container terminal operation. Managing director Shi Qin said the listed firm planned to spend about $100 million to $110 million to buy containers in 2000 to match the rise in demand caused by global economic growth. The sum almost doubles the $57 million the firm spent in buying containers in 1999, when the size of its container fleet dropped 1.0 percent to 500,899 teu.

COSCO Pacific Ltd plans to spend $150 million buying 90,000 TEUs this year to boost the number of its containers by about 18 percent to 600,000 TEUs, company managing director Shi Qin said. The ship container leasing and handling company would start providing an online container leasing service in June. COSCO had debts of $490 million at the end of last year, he added without giving further details. - (Reuters)