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Investing.com-- CK Hutchison (HK:0001) shares rallied to a 1-½ year high on Wednesday after the Hong Kong conglomerate entered a deal to sell a majority stake in a ports unit that controls assets in the Panama Canal to an investor group led by BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK).
CK shares jumped as much as 22% to HK$48.20, underpinning an over 1% jump in the Hang Seng index.
The sale is worth $22.8 billion and includes a 90% stake in the Panama Ports Company, which has operated the Balboa and Cristobal ports in the Central American country for over two decades.
The BlackRock group will gain stakes in 43 ports in 23 countries after the conclusion of the deal.
The CK sale comes amid mounting U.S. pressure on Panama to remove key docks and ports along one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes from Chinese ownership.
CK clarified that the sale was “purely commercial” in nature and unrelated to political concerns.
Panama’s attorney general had earlier this year ruled CK’s port contracts in the country as “unconstitutional,” even as the company operated ports in the canal for over 20 years.
The company is the world’s biggest privately-owned port operator, and has businesses across a variety of industries, including telecom, infrastructure, and retail.