Chinese consortium acquires 65 pct stake in Turkish port terminal

BEIJING/ISTANBUL

A joint venture set up by a Chinese investor consortium has bought a 64.5 percent stake in Turkey’s third largest container terminal, said one consortium member, COSCO Pacific, in a written statement on Sept. 17. 

“An initial purchase price of $919.8 million will be payable by the Consortium to Turkey’s Fina Holding at the Fina Liman [Port] closing. The initial purchase price was determined on the basis of the net debt of Fina Liman and Kumport as of March 31 2015,” said the company. 

The final purchase price will be determined by reference to the net debt of Fina Liman and Kumport, and the working capital of Kumport on the basis of closing accounts to be drawn up after the Fina Liman closing in accordance with the terms of the Fina Liman SPA, added the company. 

An initial purchase price of $20.2 million will also be payable by the consortium to Kumport minority shareholders at the closing of Kumport, it noted. 

The acquisition was made on Sept. 16 by a firm jointly established by the subsidiaries of China Merchants Holdings and an affiliate with the China Investment Corporation as well as COSCO Pacific, according to the written statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Kumport is located on the northwestern coast of the Marmara Sea on the Istanbul’s European side. It can handle 1.84 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo with six berths and has room for a 3.5 million TEU capacity, according to the statement. 

In the past five years, Kumport Terminal has maintained an annual growth of approximately 30 percent in container volume with its container throughput reaching 1.4 million TEU in 2014.