[181219.EN.BIZ] Hutchison Ports Moves Closer to Acquiring APM Terminals Rotterdam

HONG Kong's Hutchsion Ports and APM Terminals have signed a letter of intent for the takeover of APM Terminals Rotterdam, the older of APMT's two Rotterdam terminals.

The conventional, straddle carrier-direct 2.5 million TEU terminal will be acquired by Hutchison, subject to permission of the works council, trade unions and the Dutch merger and monopolies body, according to WorldCargo News, Surrey, UK.

The "heads of agreement" features a five-year volume guarantee from Maersk Line and a ban on compulsory dismissals over the next four years. Also the terminal must remain an "independent" organisation "for the time being," meaning that it would not be incorporated into Hutchison's subsidiary ECT directly.

The 100-hectare APMT-Rotterdam terminal is the facility with which ECT started operating on its Maasvlakte I Delta Peninsula in the early 1980s. The terminal had to be sold by ECT by order of the European Commission as a condition of the permit for ECT and its then partner P&O Nedlloyd to build Euromax.

Source : HKSG.