News / MSC to hold 15% global container terminal market share after Hutch buy

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MSC is set to operate a global terminal empire of just under 200m teu, if it manages to complete its acquisition of Hutchison’s non-Chinese port portfolio, giving the world’s largest shipping line a 15% market share of the global container port sector.

Eirik Hooper, senior ports and terminals analyst for Drewry, said in a webinar today that Hutchison’s assets would add nearly 74m teu capacity to MSC’s Terminal Investment Ltd (TiL), Africa Global Logistics (AGL) and HHLA brands portfolio, “bringing the cumulative total to a staggering 196m teu”.

He added: “That’s based on 2023 terminal capacity data, nearly double the pre-AGL MSC portfolio.

“This would mean that MSC and its subsidiaries and affiliates have equity interest in over 15% of global terminal capacity,” he explained.

The proposed $21bn deal involves the sale of an 80% equity stake in Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), minus its operations in China and its shareholding in the Singapore Stock Exchange-listed Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which owns its Pearl River Delta facilities. That remaining 20% in HPH continues to be held by Singapore port operator PSA.

But the purchase also includes acquisition of HPH’s 90% stake in Panama Ports Company, although this is effectively being undertaken as a side-sale while Panama investigates legal questions around PPC’s operating concession.

And while the purchaser is officially a consortium of MSC’s port subsidiary TiL and US investment house BlackRock, Mr Hooper said ownership would eventually by held by MSC.

“We understand that the way the deal is being structured at the moment is that all of the assets in the deal will be owned by MSC. So, MSC will buy Hutchison’s equity in those assets,” he said.

However, this excludes the PPC operation, Mr Hooper noted.

“BlackRock will have majority ownership of Panama Ports. We understand BlackRock will take 51% of that 90%, with MSC taking 49%, the minority stake there.

“Other than that, all the Hutchison equity will be bought by MSC, noting again that PSA has a 20% holding in Hutchinson Ports – so, again, that complicates the matter further.

“Also note that BlackRock last year acquired a 20% stake in TiL. So, it will still have an exposure to all these assets through that,” he explained.

Drewry’s senior associate of ports and terminals, Eleanor Hadland, added: “There’s been various reports that PSA may also be looking to offload its stake at the same time – they tried to sell it about a year and a half ago, and that deal didn’t go move forward.

“There are rumours that PSA has looked at the valuation and thought, ‘I quite like that’. So, watch this space.

“The news will run and run, and we also expect the deal to take quite a long time because of the amount of regulatory review it will be going through in many jurisdictions,” she added.

The deal was first announced on 4 March, when it was stated that “exclusive negotiations” would be conducted for a 145-day period, meaning the deadline is 27 July – just six weeks away.