Hong Kong -based group agreed to sell its dominant share in a subsidiary that runs the ports near the Panama channel to an alliance that includes the American Black Rock company, which actually puts the ports under US control after President Donald Trump claimed to enter China in the important charging corridors.
CK Hijson Holding said in a disclosure yesterday evening that it will sell all shares in Hatson Port Holdings and Heshson Port Holings to the alliance in a deal valued at about $ 23 billion, including $ 5 billion of debt.
control
The deal will give the Black Rock Union control of 43 ports in 23 countries, including ports in Poa and Crystobal in Panama, in addition to other ports in Mexico, the Netherlands, Egypt, Australia, Pakistan and other places.
The deal, which the Panama government must approve, does not include any interest in a fund that runs the ports in Hong Kong, China, and South China, or any other ports in China.
About 70% of the marine traffic that crosses the Panama channel leaves or goes to the United States ports.
The United States has made the Panama Canal in the early twentieth century during its search for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military ships between its coasts. Washington abandoned control of the Panama waterway on December 31, 1999, according to a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, and Trump said that Carter gave the channel “stupid”.
Trump and his supporters complained about the drawings imposed by ships to use the waterway and claimed that China was running the channel, a claim denied by the Panama government.
In January, US Senator Ted Cruz, Chairman of the Senate Trade, Science and Transport Committee, has raised fears that China may be exploiting or preventing traffic through the channel and that the ports “give China ready control points” to take the necessary measures, and Cruz said: “I think this situation poses severe risks to US national security.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wui-mm_wkw0
Visit and withdraw
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Panama visited in early February and told the President of Panama Jose Raul Mulino that his country should limit Chinese influence on the channel or face a possible revenge on the United States, and Molino rejected the idea that China has any control of the channels.
Panama withdrew from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative in the wake of Rubio’s visit, which sparked condemnation from Beijing.
The belt and the road are the global development strategy for building roads, ports and railways to open new markets.
But while a lot of attention focused on Trump’s threat to regain control of the channel, his administration directed her attention to the Hongson ports, the Hong Kong -based alliance, which runs the main ports on both sides of the channel.
The Hitchison Ports recently obtained a 25 -year extension without offering a tender for port management, but the audit of this extension was already underway, and observers believe that the audit was an initial step towards ultimately re -offering the contract, but rumors were taking place in recent weeks that an American company close to the White House was preparing to take over.
“The result of a quick, separate, but competitive process, as many bids and interests were received.”
“I would like to confirm that the deal is purely commercial by its nature and has nothing to do with the recent political news reports related to Panama’s ports,” said Six.
In addition to Black Rock, a New York -based Global Investment Management Company and its managed assets reached 11.6 trillion dollars on December 31, the coalition includes Global Infranscher Partners of Black Rock and Terminal Invastume Limmete.
