Hutchison plans massive ports listing on Singapore Exchange
Hutchison Whampoa is planning a massive listing of its Hong Kong and South China port assets on the Singapore Exchange. The Hong Kong port operator plans to put all its Hong Kong and Guangdong port interests into a business trust, HPH Trust, to be listed on the Singapore Exchange. Hutchison said that following the listing it would continue to hold a 25% stake in HPH Trust. In 2009 the proposed assets of the trust made revenues of HK$10.62bn and a profit of HK$2.6bn. According to wire reports the listing could raise up to $6bn. “There is significant potential for economic and trade growth in the Southern China region, which is already the largest trading hub in the world, and the creation of this new public vehicle will enable the Group to take full advantage of such opportunities by creating a new funding platform to attract new investors seeking investments in a pure play deep-water container ports related entity focused on container port opportunities in the Pearl River Delta, and by providing an appropriate credit profile for financial institutions wishing to lend against the credit of a pure ports-related entity," said Canning Fok, managing director of Hutchison Whampoa. Hutchison has appointed DBS Bank Deutsche Bank AG, Singapore Branch and Goldman Sachs as joint bookrunners and joint issue manager.