Joint Press Release
through share swap agreement with NYK
[December 22, 2008 - Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan] - Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) have signed a share-swapping agreement through which HPH will become the majority shareholder of Amsterdam-based Ceres Container Terminals Europe B.V. (CTE) in the Netherlands. In exchange for the majority stake in CTE, NYK will have a minority stake in Europe Container Terminals (ECT) in Rotterdam.
Commenting on the agreement, John Meredith, Group Managing Director of HPH, said, "The investment in CTE will help strengthen HPH's presence in Northern Europe through the addition of extra container-handling capacity. CTE's strategic location allows it to attract deep-sea and feeder traffic as well as inland traffic."
Takao Kusakari, Chairman of NYK said, "This agreement gives us the opportunity to enhance our cooperation with HPH while further tapping into HPH's network of Northern European ports."
CTE is a holding company of two wholly owned subsidiaries, Ceres Paragon Terminals (CPT) and Ceres Amsterdam Marine Terminals (CAMT). CPT is made up of three berths - one 400-by-57-metre indented berth and two conventional berths with a combined length of 615 metres and a depth alongside of 15 metres. CPT also has an excellent on-dock rail facility with three 700-metre-long tracks that reach out towards the edge of the quay deck for the fast and efficient handling of containers.
CAMT is a Ro-Ro terminal that performs stevedoring activities for automobile carriers and has a number of warehouses for the storage of cocoa.
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Notes to Editors:
About HPH:
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), is the world's leading port investor, developer and operator with interests in 50 ports, spanning 26 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. HPH also owns a number of transportation-related service companies. In 2007, the HPH Group handled a combined throughput of 66.3 million TEU worldwide.
About NYK:
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha is one of the world's leading transportation companies. Based in Tokyo, the NYK Group operates about 776 major ocean vessels, as of the end of March 2008, as well as fleets of planes, trains, and trucks. NYK's revenue in fiscal 2007 was about US$26 billion, and as a group NYK employs about 55,000 people worldwide.
Contacts:
HPH
Anthony Tam
Group Corporate Affairs
Telephone: +852-2619 7557
E-mail: gca@hph.com
NYK
Jun Katayama
Corporate Communication Group
Telephone: +81-3-3284-5188
E-mail: prteam@jp.nykline.com