International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is set to consolidate its Chinese port operations.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Manila-based operator said that the decision to acquire 51 percent of DP World Yantai Company Ltd., though it subsidiary ICTSI (Hong Kong), has been approved by the Ministry of Commerce-Shandong Province of China.
The company will be renamed Yantai International Container Terminals Limited (YICT).
As part of the acquisition, DP World China (Yantai) Ltd. will retain a 12.5 percent equity interest in YICT, with the remaining share belonging to Yantai Port Holdings Company Limited (YPH), according to ABS-CBN.
ICTSI has also confimrmed that it has been given the green light to sell its 60 percent interest in Yantai Rising Dragon International Container Terminals Ltd (YRDICTL). YRDICTL will be wholly responsible for cargo operations and will take full control of the company.
“The objective of these transactions is to consolidate and optimise the overall port operations within the Zhifu Bay Port area in Yantai, China,” ICTSI said in a statement.
The disclosure said the move comes after major Yantai port operators “agreed to consolidate container operations in order to achieve synergy in the allocation of resources, improve economies of scale by separating local and foreign container handling operations, and upgrade the professional level of the container operations of the Yantai Port as a whole.”