DP World sells 75pc Oz ports business stake for US$1.5 billion

DUBAI's DP World has announced that it recently sold a 75 per cent shares in its Australian ports business for US$1.5 billion to the Citi Infrastructure Investors, a private investment firm.

The port operator, a unit of Dubai World, said the sale helps the company to reduce the debt, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce. DP World, which was excluded from Dubai World's $30 billion debt restructuring, recorded a net debt of $5.4 billion at the end of June.

The sale "provides a great opportunity for DP World to remain actively involved in Australia whilst delivering on our strategy to monetise assets as part of DP World's ongoing goal to reduce leverage and focus on higher margin markets," DP World chief financial officer Yuvraj Narayan said in a statement to Nasdaq Dubai.

DP World said it will retain 25 per cent of DP World Australia and will continue to run its five container terminals under a long-term management contract.

DP World Australia, which handles 50 per cent of the country's container traffic, runs terminals in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Fremantle and Melbourne with an annual capacity of 3.5 million TEU.

DP World plans to go public in London in 2011. Its 50 owned and managed terminals handled 14 per cent more containers in the third quarter to 13 million TEU compared to 11.4 million TEU in the same period 2009.
(Source:www.schednet.com)