A second bid for a major UK ports company was on the horizon today after the North East-based operator PD Ports said it had received an approach.
The group, whose PD Teesport site is the UK’s second-largest port by volume, did not reveal the identity of the potential bid party, although reports mentioned Australian investment bank Macquarie, which has built up a range of transport-related assets in the UK.
Manchester-based Peel Holdings may also be seen as a candidate, a month after completing the £780m acquisition of Mersey Docks & Harbour – the owner of ports at Liverpool, Heysham and the Medway towns of Sheerness and Chatham.
Shares in PD Ports jumped 13% following the confirmation of an approach, leaving the stock up 15p at 127.5p and valuing it at around £223m.
In comparison, AB Ports – the owner of the Grimsby, Immingham and Hull ports – has a market capitalisation of more than £1.5bn while Forth Ports, the owner of Rosyth and Tilbury, is valued at £569m.
Peel, which also runs Clydeport, is privately owned.
As well as PD Teesport at Tees and Hartlepool, PD Ports runs a port services arm with operations in warehousing, distribution and freight forwarding from several UK locations.
There is also PD Truck & Van, a Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles dealer operating as H & L Garages in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
The company only floated on the stock market in July 2004 after Japanese group Nikko sold the business that it had acquired as part of a £507m takeover of Powell Duffryn in 2000.
PD Ports received a boost recently when Asda said it wanted to open a £20m import centre at Teesport, enabling products such as George clothing and televisions to arrive closer to their final destinations.
References: EGi News 19/10/05
