OCEANIA

Port bid advisor appointed

21 years ago

Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) has appointed independent advisor Crighton Anderson Corporate Finance to evaluate the bid of Christchurch City Holdings (CCH) to acquire the 31% shareholding it does not own. The LPC board is awaiting that report before making a recommendation on the US$1.34 per share bid, but industry opinion is the price will need to be increased.

Although contracts were awarded last year, they have not been implemented because of outstanding labour issues.

Meanwhile, both the Rail and Maritime Transport Union and Maritime Union of New Zealand have come against the deal, due to CCH’s announced intention to effectively on-sell control of LPC to multi-national corporate Hutchison Port Holdings.