Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 14, 2006 19:51:46 GMT -5
$6.8b DPW bid confirmed
BY AHMED A. ELEWA
(Deputy Business Editor)
KHALEEJ TIMES
www.khaleejtimes.com/
14 February 2006
DUBAI — With a majority of 99.52 per cent, the main shareholders of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), voted yesterday overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the takeover bid from Dubai Ports World (DPW), according to a statement by P&O’s chairman John Parker to the shareholders, ranking DPW as third-largest global port operator.
Accepting DPW’s offer of 520 pence a share, worth £3.9 billion, came after the withdrawal of rival Singaporean bidder PSA International from the race for the British ports operator on Friday.
Speaking to Khaleej Times from Wembley yesterday, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of DPW said that “98.5 per cent of the shareholders voted in favour for the deal, and we are quite positive about the future.”
While many anticipate that DPW can be forced to give up P&O’s ferries business, bin Sulayem emphasised that the issue is out of the question and that DPW will “retain the ferries business after the take-over” adding that “from the outset, DPW has clearly declared its support for all the restructuring plans carried out by P&O, and its commitment to retaining all the assets.”
Management and regulations: DPW’s venture entails dealing effectively with a wide variety of issues, including the differences in management culture, as well as the UK’s tough regulatory environment, and to that effect, bin Sulayem admitted that the reason DPW pushed for a fast take-over by offering a premium price “is simply because we wanted to retain P&O’s key management personnel, have we been late in our quest we could have lost these key people,” he said.
“On the other hand, we are confident that the deal will be approved by the UK courts, and that we are very capable of dealing with all the regulatory requirements thereis.”
Criticism: Speaking to Fox News yesterday, Charles Schumer, a US senate said that the take-over of P&O’s operations at six US shipping ports by a UAE company “doesn’t make sense.”
Schumer said in the interview that the company (DPW) was a “secret little group” and that he “doesn’t trust their word.”
“Should we be outsourcing our own security?” he asked “it’s not just aimed at the UAE. Should we be outsourcing police? Should we be outsourcing things to affect our security? It doesn’t make sense to do it.” He also called for a public review of the security aspects of the takeover.
Bin Sulayem refused to comment on such criticism declaring that “it is not an issue.” The US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, a secretive US government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry, “thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection,” DP World said in a statement to The Associated Press late last week.
BY AHMED A. ELEWA
(Deputy Business Editor)
KHALEEJ TIMES
www.khaleejtimes.com/
14 February 2006
DUBAI — With a majority of 99.52 per cent, the main shareholders of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), voted yesterday overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the takeover bid from Dubai Ports World (DPW), according to a statement by P&O’s chairman John Parker to the shareholders, ranking DPW as third-largest global port operator.
Accepting DPW’s offer of 520 pence a share, worth £3.9 billion, came after the withdrawal of rival Singaporean bidder PSA International from the race for the British ports operator on Friday.
Speaking to Khaleej Times from Wembley yesterday, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of DPW said that “98.5 per cent of the shareholders voted in favour for the deal, and we are quite positive about the future.”
While many anticipate that DPW can be forced to give up P&O’s ferries business, bin Sulayem emphasised that the issue is out of the question and that DPW will “retain the ferries business after the take-over” adding that “from the outset, DPW has clearly declared its support for all the restructuring plans carried out by P&O, and its commitment to retaining all the assets.”
Management and regulations: DPW’s venture entails dealing effectively with a wide variety of issues, including the differences in management culture, as well as the UK’s tough regulatory environment, and to that effect, bin Sulayem admitted that the reason DPW pushed for a fast take-over by offering a premium price “is simply because we wanted to retain P&O’s key management personnel, have we been late in our quest we could have lost these key people,” he said.
“On the other hand, we are confident that the deal will be approved by the UK courts, and that we are very capable of dealing with all the regulatory requirements thereis.”
Criticism: Speaking to Fox News yesterday, Charles Schumer, a US senate said that the take-over of P&O’s operations at six US shipping ports by a UAE company “doesn’t make sense.”
Schumer said in the interview that the company (DPW) was a “secret little group” and that he “doesn’t trust their word.”
“Should we be outsourcing our own security?” he asked “it’s not just aimed at the UAE. Should we be outsourcing police? Should we be outsourcing things to affect our security? It doesn’t make sense to do it.” He also called for a public review of the security aspects of the takeover.
Bin Sulayem refused to comment on such criticism declaring that “it is not an issue.” The US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, a secretive US government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry, “thoroughly reviewed the potential transaction and concluded they had no objection,” DP World said in a statement to The Associated Press late last week.