Today, Hong Kong investment fund CK Hutchison announced the sale of a 90% stake in the Panama Canal port infrastructure (Panama Ports Company, PPC), as well as an 80% stake in Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), which owns and operates 43 seaports in 23 countries, to a consortium of investors led by the American fund BlackRock.
The deal was worth $22.8 billion. BlackRock’s special infrastructure division, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), and the Swiss fund Terminal Investment will manage CK Hutchison’s port assets. Some media outlets have viewed this deal as a “victory for Donald Trump,” who stated that “China controls the Panama Canal” and promised to “give us back the canal, otherwise something very significant will happen.”
