Sunday February 12, 2006

PSA pulls out of bidding for Britain's P&O

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

Singapore port operator PSA International has withdrawn from the contest for the highly prized port and ferry assets of Britain's Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O), ending a costly and some say futile bidding war with oil-backed Dubai Ports World (DPW). PSA ended days of speculation on whether it would best the Dubai port operator's Jan 26 bid of 520 pence per share, which valued P&O at 3.9 billion (S$11.1 billion). Following DPW's revised offer, 'PSA has decided not to increase its offer and will therefore no longer pursue the acquisition of P&O', the Singapore-based terminal operator said in a statement.

The decision by PSA to bow out will surprise few in the shipping community in Singapore, who have watched the nascent Dubai container terminal operator expand aggressively into a global maritime player. Pointing to the tenacity of DPW's bidding - its Jan 26 counter-bid came barely 12 hours after PSA's offer - the common wisdom was that DPW would pull out the stops to ensure it won the contest, thereby establishing itself as the third-largest player in the global terminal business behind Hutchison Port Holdings and PSA.

See also :

1. Arab oil money
2. Gulf Arab states to invest surplus oil money in China and India
3. More M&A

(2006-02-12 22:59:14 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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