Kritikos blocks sale

Kritikos, who was instrumental in developing the terminal along with the Amsterdam municipality, sold Ceres Terminals Inc to NYK Lines in the autumn of 2002.

However, he retains a 50% stake in the innovative Dutch facility until the end of 2006, when he will have to sell his remaining shares to NYK Lines.

Following the Japanese carrier’s acquisition of Ceres Paragon, the line said that, ‘With the co-operation of the Ceres employees, the success of Paragon is assured? Ceres gives NYK an important terminal opportunity at its innovative Paragon Terminal.’

Two and a half years on, NYK Lines’ failure to persuade its Grand Alliance partner, the Rotterdam-based P&O Nedlloyd, to use Paragon, even with a developing European terminal shortage, has seen the carrier attempt to sell the facility on.

Kritikos has, however, put a spanner in the works refusing to agree a sale unless the price is right. He told ci-online: ‘I will only sell if the price is correct, and we have not been offered enough’. He went on to confirm that he will retain a stake in the terminal until the end of 2006, and that Eurogate and Hutchison Ports’ subsidiary ECT, were the only bidders.

‘I believe ECT are the frontrunners’, in the race to buy Paragon, he added. However, he could not confirm that ECT planned to dismantle the container terminal, which can handle containerships from both sides due to its ‘indented berth’.

Local industry sources suggested that ECT will not allow Paragon to become a competitor to its Rotterdam container installations and will convert the terminal to a bulk handling facility.