HPH Trust buys majority stake in Huizhou port from sponsor for US$86m

PORT operator Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Trust has agreed to buy a majority equity stake in Huizhou International Container Terminals (HICT) from the trust's sponsor for about US$86.26 million, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday.

HICT owns and operates container terminals in the Quanwan port zone of the Daya Bay economic and technological development zone in China's south-eastern Guangdong province, HPH Trust said.

The trust manager said that it expects construction of two 50,000-tonne container berths in the Huizhou port to be completed by the end of 2016, and that it believes the Huizhou terminals "will be able to attract more cargoes, in particular intra-Asia cargoes due to its strategic position".

HPH Trust units fell half a US cent to finish at US$0.44 on Wednesday before the announcement.