The market believes the disposal refers to the sale of four container terminals in North America.
A spokesman for the shipping firm, run by the family of former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, declined to comment on the disposal, saying only that the company will remain suspended from trading today and will make an announcement in due course.
However, analysts generally believe the disposal refers to the sale of its four container terminals, two in Vancouver - Deltaport and Vanterm - as well as New York Container Terminal on Staten Island in New York City and Global Terminal in New Jersey.
Nicholas Sims, director and chief financial officer of OOIL, said in August the assets have been valued by investment banks at between US$500 million (HK$3.9 billion) and US$1.6 billion.
He denied that the proposed disposal of the four container terminals is related either to the dip in company profits or to capital needs, but said that OOIL wanted to lock in the value of the assets which could not be reflected in its share price in the past.
Stone Shi, analyst with Sun Hung Kai Securities, expects that the sales will raise between US$1.11 billion and US$1.33 billion.
Morgan Stanley earlier forecast a price tag on the assets of US$1.1 billion to US$1.3 billion.
"The completion of the potential port sale would be a key catalyst for the unlocking of hidden value within OOIL," Goldman Sachs said in a research note. The house said last month it expects that OOIL will pay part of the sales proceeds from the disposal of four US ports as a special dividend.
OOIL said in October that it had shortlisted fewer than five bidders for the second round of a tender to sell the four terminals and hoped to sell the assets as one package before the end of the year.
Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Group, Babcock & Brown Infrastructure, TPG- Newbridge and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts have all been tipped as potential bidders.
According to OOIL, the four terminals moved 2.38 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) last year and 1.33 million TEUs in the first half this year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization totaled US$52.2 million for the first half of this year, jumping 35.6 percent from US$38.5 million year on year.
Turnover from the terminals jumped 23.2 percent to US$236.6 million in the first half from US$192 million a year earlier.
OOIL's Sims said in August that the company had no plan to sell stakes in other terminals located in Long Beach, California, and in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, which mainly serve the company's own shipping fleet.
OOIL also has stakes in the mainland ports of Ningbo and Tianjin and says it will continue to look for investment opportunities in ports located in southern China.
Since declaring July 25 its intention to sell the four terminals, shares in OOIL have jumped 33.4 percent to a high of HK$36.95 Tuesday.