Msc and the infrastructure consortium led by BlackRock have reopened and accelerated negotiations with CK Hutchison to complete the acquisition of the Hong Kong group’s international port portfolio. According to Reuters on 3 March 2026, talks have resumed with a new objective: to finalise the transaction while excluding the two terminals on the Panama Canal, which have become legally and politically too complex following the cancellation of the local concessions.
The negotiations therefore concern a revised version of the agreement announced in March 2025, which envisaged the sale of most of Hutchison Ports’ international activities to a consortium formed by Global Infrastructure Partners – controlled by BlackRock – and Terminal Investment Limited (Til), the terminal operating arm of the Msc shipping group. The original deal valued the transaction at around 22.8 billion dollars (about 21 billion euros) for the sale of stakes in 43 ports with 199 berths across 23 countries, excluding mainland China.
With the ongoing renegotiation, the scope of the deal would be reduced to 41 ports, leaving out the Balboa and Cristobal terminals on the Panama Canal. According to Reuters, the consortium aims to close the agreement quickly on the remaining assets in order to preserve the industrial and financial value of the transaction, postponing any solution for the Panamanian terminals to a later stage.
In the industrial plan outlined in 2025, Til would take on the main operational role by directly acquiring most of the terminals in the Hutchison portfolio. The group controlled by the Aponte family is already one of the world’s largest terminal operators: the Til network includes more than 70 terminals in over 30 countries, with annual handling capacity of around 70 million TEU. The integration of the Hutchison facilities would allow Til to further strengthen its global presence and compete with operators such as Psa International, DP World and Cosco.
BlackRock and Global Infrastructure Partners would instead act as the financial partners in the transaction. The US group’s infrastructure funds aim to enter one of the world’s most extensive port networks, a sector considered attractive for the stability of cash flows linked to maritime trade. In the original structure of the agreement, the consortium would have taken control of Panama Ports Company with a majority stake, while Til would have held a minority shareholding.
The revision of the agreement became necessary following judicial and political developments in Panama. At the end of January 2026, the country’s Supreme Court annulled the port concessions held by a CK Hutchison subsidiary for the Balboa and Cristobal terminals, opening a legal dispute over the future of the infrastructure and effectively blocking the immediate transfer of the assets to the international consortium.
The portfolio involved in the negotiations includes terminals in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. Among the infrastructures are facilities in countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Mexico, Australia, Pakistan and Egypt, including six terminals located along the Suez Canal, one of the main routes of global maritime trade.
P.R.
