The EU antitrust authority appears to intend to investigate the Spanish part of the agreement relating to the joint offer by BlackRock and MSC to acquire the container terminals of CK Hutchison. This was published by the portal Shipping Italy, which cites Reuters sources. The CK Hutchison group, controlled by the Hong Kong magnate, Li Ka-shing, intends to sell its 80% stake in a $22.8 billion port business, which would include 43 ports in 23 countries around the world.
In Spain, however, the operation would include the Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST), located in the port of Barcelona, which Terminal Investment Limited (the terminal arm of Msc) would come to control (together with BlackRock) in parallel with the one the Swiss shipping group already owns in Valencia. The sum of the port capacity of the latter and that currently held by Hutchison in Barcelona raises an alarm signal in Brussels due to a risk of excessive concentration in the hands of MSC on the Spanish coasts facing the Mediterranean.
The BEST terminal, 80% owned by CK Hutchison and 20% by Tercat, for which MSC had already obtained approval in recent months to acquire a 50% stake, is capable of hosting and operating several large container ships simultaneously and is equipped with an eight-track railway structure that makes these docks one of the best rail-connected yards among those existing in the Mediterranean and connected by land to southern Europe.
Preliminary review of the agreement
Sources cited by Reuters indicate that the European Commission, in its role as guarantor of competition at the continental level, should open a thorough investigation at the end of the preliminary review of the agreement, scheduled for December 10. EU in-depth investigations usually last at least four months and can result in offers (concessions) by the parties involved, including, for example, the divestment of assets, in order to eliminate competition concerns at the root and obtain approval for the closing of the operation.
