Singapore port giant beats Dubai rival in P&O bidding

LONDON Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, a British port operator, agreed to be acquired by Singapore’s port company for £3.55 billion, rejecting a lower offer from Dubai.
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"The logic of PSA bidding is sensible," said Neil Davidson, director of research in London at Drewry Shipping Consultants. "PSA is still very dependent on Singapore, and P&O at a stroke radically changes that."
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Acquiring P&O will "create the strongest business platform that will enable us to serve our global customers better," Fock Siew Wah, chairman of PSA, said in the statement.

PSA’s purchase, the Singapore company’s biggest, would give it access to 29 container terminals at ports in Baltimore, Maryland ; Qingdao, China ; Chennai, India ; Southampton, England ; and Le Havre, France.

PSA handled 41.8 million standard 20-foot containers in 2005. Following the acquisition, it will move ahead of Hutchison, which is controlled by the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Hutchison handled 47.8 million containers in 2004.
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DP World runs the Dubai ports of Rashid and Jebel Ali as well as terminals in Romania, Germany and India.

The company in late 2004 beat Hutchison and PSA to the port assets of CSX, which is based in Florida, and forecast in November that it would handle more than 13 million containers in 2005.
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DP World said in response to PSA’s initial approach on Jan. 10 that it remained committed to acquiring P&O.

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