Drewry has pointed to the planned merger of the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, 2019\u2019s agreement between COSCO SHIPPING Ports, Tianjin Port Holdings and China Merchants International Terminals to merge their Tianjin container terminal assets, 2020\u2019s acquisition of Yingkou Port by Liaoning Port Company and 2020’s acquisition of Krishnapatnam Ports Company Ltd (KPCL) by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones (APSEZ).<\/p>\n
\u201cA merger of Belgium\u2019s two largest port authorities will have positive cost implications,\u201d said Drewry.<\/p>\n
The combined port will rank a close second to Europe\u2019s largest container hub, Rotterdam. As part of a joint plan, the two ports have defined three strategic priorities \u2013 sustainable growth, resilience and leadership in energy and digital transition. After the completion of the deal, the city of Antwerp will own 80% of the new company, with the city of Bruges controlling the remaining 20% share.<\/p>\n
Emerging global trend<\/strong><\/p>\n This planned merger adds to an emerging global trend, said Drewry. Referencing the 2019, COSCO-Tianjin-China Merchants deal, the consultancy said the planned regionalisation of ports (region-wise consolidation) in China aims to rationalise capacity planning and reduce damaging competition between neighbouring ports.<\/p>\n China now has nine ports in the global top 25, compared to 11 two years ago. Another deal delivered as part of China\u2019s regionalisation strategy was the July 2020 US$2.39bn acquisition of Yingkou Port by Liaoning Port Company (previously known as Dalian Port Company).<\/p>\n Strategically the deal is focussed on strengthening Liaoning Port\u2019s status as a major gateway port in northeast China. Figures from China\u2019s Ministry of Transport show Port of Dalian has registered an annual decline of 41.7% in volumes to adjust the overstatement of throughput in 2020 as well as volumes shifting to nearby Yingkou Port. Liaoning Port Company\u2019s acquisition of Yingkou Port should help balance-out some of these inter-regional shifts in throughput, said Drewry.<\/p>\n APSEZ acquisition<\/strong><\/p>\n In another deal, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones (APSEZ) acquired a controlling stake of 75% in Krishnapatnam Ports Company Ltd (KPCL) for USD 1.6bn. The acquisition of the multi-cargo facility port should accelerate APSEZ towards 500m metric tonnes per annum by 2025 and is another step in implementing the company\u2019s stated strategy of achieving cargo parity between west and east coasts of India. This acquisition complements Adani\u2019s existing investments in Ennore and Kattupalli, strengthening its market position and control.<\/p>\n Despite increased M&A activity, valuation remained below the long-term average, showcasing the possible acquisition opportunities, said Drewry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the port sector has been growing, with recent M&As indicating the sector is consolidating, reports a maritime research consultancy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulk-handling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1344,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/1344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}