CK Hutchison to Invite Chinese Investor to Join Global Port Deal

Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings said it plans to invite a “major strategic investor” from China to join the consortium seeking to buy its global port assets, a portfolio that includes two terminals at either end of the Panama Canal.

The announcement came on July 28, following the expiration of a 145-day exclusivity period for negotiations on the proposed $22.8 billion sale.

That window was set in March, when CK Hutchison, owned by the family of Hong Kong business tycoon Li Ka-shing, revealed it was in exclusive talks with a consortium led by American asset management giant BlackRock and Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), owned by the family of Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte.

The deal, which covers an 80 percent stake in 43 container terminals across 23 countries, remains subject to approval from Beijing.

In its latest message to investors, CK Hutchison confirmed that the group is now in discussions aimed at bringing “a major strategic investor from mainland China” on board as a “significant member” of the consortium.

“In order for the transaction to obtain approval from all relevant regulatory authorities and departments, the membership of the consortium and the transaction structure will need to be adjusted,” the company said, adding it “intends to allow such time as is required for such discussions.”

CK Hutchison reiterated it will not proceed with any deal until “all necessary approvals from relevant regulatory authorities” have been secured. The company also urged investors to use caution when trading its securities, citing uncertainty over whether the discussions regarding the new arrangement “will reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

The inclusion of a Chinese partner may help ease political pressure from Beijing, which has so far seen the proposed sale—particularly the transfer of strategic terminals near the Panama Canal to a consortium backed by a major American financial institution—as a potential threat to its overseas interests.

Responding to the development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun reiterated the official rhetoric at a regular press briefing that Beijing would conduct “lawful regulation” and safeguard “national sovereignty, security, and development interests.”

Since the deal was announced, Chinese state-aligned media have launched a coordinated propaganda campaign targeting CK Hutchison and its founder, Li Ka-shing.

Ta Kung Pao, a Chinese Communist Party-affiliated newspaper in Hong Kong, published a series of blistering commentaries accusing the 96-year-old billionaire of “betraying and selling out all the Chinese people” and calling on him to “think carefully about what position and which side to stand on.”

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the CCP’s top liaison body in the region, reposted several of those commentaries on its official website in March.

Li, officially retired in 2018, is personally involved in negotiating the port deal, which is widely seen as an effort to offload assets caught in escalating geopolitical tensions between China and the United States.

Over the past months, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the United States should regain control of the Panama Canal, citing overcharges for its use on American ships and the CCP’s growing influence over the key waterway.

“If there’s a conflict and China tells them, do everything you can to obstruct the canal so that the U.S. can’t engage in trade and commerce, so that the U.S. military and naval fleet cannot get to the Indo-Pacific fast enough, they would have to do it ... and they would do it. And now we’d have a major problem on our hands,” he said.

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