PS OPINION PIECE

There are reports of new entities entering the market – for example a fund looking at port projects on the African continent and at the same time established players such as Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), owner of International Port Holdings (IPH), continue to add new deals and to look to develop others around the globe.IPH, headed up by Alistair Baillie formerly of P&O Ports, recently announced that together with PSA International it had acquired a majority stake in International Trade Logistics, owner of the Exolgan Container Terminal in Buenos Aires and complementary logistics and warehousing businesses. This follows on from GIP acquiring a 25% stake in the Chennai Container Terminal in India and its involvement in the Great Yarmouth port expansion project via its wholly-owned subsidiary IPH. IPH owns and operates Great Yarmouth Port and here too it has forged an alliance with PSA International in a new short-sea container terminal project.

Effectively GIP/IPH brings something to the table that other private equity concerns do not have on tap – port expertise, through the experience of Alistair Baillie and IPH’s vice chairman, Eliza O’Toole.

Other private equity concerns continue to rely on the consultancy sector to tap into new opportunities and to acquire businesses as going concerns to acquire port expertise. So far, however, there is little evidence of private equity concerns acquiring businesses and being able to readily deploy the expertise they contain elsewhere – undoubtedly this will come but it takes time and there is a strong learning curve involved.

International terminal operators, the established players in the port investment business, also continue to pursue new opportunities with vigour particularly in the container sector. Currently, the “bees” are nearly all gathered around the “honey pot” of the new container terminal concession opportunities in Greece, in the ports of Thessaloniki and Piraeus. But is it a level playing field in Greece and is the proposed concession structure something of a half way house?