This follows on from earlier successes of Mr Ozyegin, which have led to the popular view of him as a highly astute businessman. These include the sale of 46% share of Finansbank to the National Bank of Greece for $2.8bn. Finansbank was founded by Mr Ozyegin in 1987 and became Turkey’s fifth largest private lender.
True be told, $940m is a healthy price and one likely too rich for other bidding entities such as APM Terminals. Mr Ozyegin and his team may also have read the market well with container capacity in the Marmara Sea now swinging in excess of demand.
The purchaser is the joint venture of China Merchants Holdings International (CMHI), Cosco Pacific and CIC Capital who will hold shareholdings of 40%, 40% and 20% respectively. China’s economy may be slowing but the country’s relentless acquisition of businesses in overseas market shows no signs of slowing down.
This latest acquisition will add to China’s footprint in the European zone with other notable acquisitions being Piraeus Container Terminal and European terminals under the umbrella of Terminal Link, a terminal division of shipping line CMA CGM. China Merchants bought 49% of Terminal Link in 2013 for $400m.
The Kumport acquisition is particularly interesting in that it signals the willingness of China’s port interests to bid at a high level.
Is this the shape of things to come perhaps in conjunction with the pending sale of the Port of Piraeus? If the structure of the deal is still of interest to Cosco – and there may be some doubt about this with recent changes made that phase the 67% share purchase and stipulate time rather than demand triggered investments – then it is quite feasible Cosco may bid high. But, relatively speaking, will it be as high as for Kumport? This will, of course, depend on financial performance and there is unlikely to be strong similarities in that respect.
