{"id":55711,"date":"2025-03-05T02:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T02:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711"},"modified":"2025-03-05T02:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T02:03:10","slug":"blackrock-to-buy-panama-canal-ports-after-pressure-from-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=b3a1ea24-72c6-4fad-9de1-e7411048ad31&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>BlackRock has agreed to buy two major ports on the Panama Canal from their Hong Kong-based owner as part of a $22.8bn deal, following pressure from Donald Trump over alleged Chinese influence at the vital waterway.<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, the ports\u2019 Hong Kong-based owner CK Hutchison would sell the business to a consortium including BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited, according to a company statement on Tuesday. The group would acquire a 90 per cent stake in the company that owns and operates the two ports in Panama.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has frequently alleged that \u201cChina is running the Panama Canal\u201d, and rattled Panama when he threatened earlier this year to \u201ctake it back\u201d under American control. The Trump administration has also demanded Panama reduce Chinese influence at the canal, claiming Beijing\u2019s involvement in the ports had violated a treaty concerning its neutrality.<\/p>\n<p>The deal announced on Tuesday also includes an 80 per cent stake of CK Hutchison\u2019s ports subsidiaries, which run 43 ports in 23 countries, including in the UK and Germany. It also runs ports in south-east Asia, the Middle East, Mexico and Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining 20 per cent stake is held by port operator PSA, which is owned by Temasek, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund. <\/p>\n<p>CK Hutchison said it expected to receive cash in excess of $19bn from the deal, a figure that includes repayment of some shareholder loans. CK Hutchison\u2019s market capitalisation is HK$148bn ($19bn). <\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s share price surged 22 per cent in morning trading in Hong Kong on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s election victory in November and his calls for the US to retake control of the canal prompted CK Hutchison to consider the sale, sparking a short and intense period of negotiations for the ports, according to people briefed on the discussions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen President Trump won and he started making noise about annexing Canada and Greenland and Panama, the pressure was put on the Panamanians,\u201d one person familiar with the deal said. The person added that CK Hutchison \u201crealised that it was a political headache and they wanted to do something\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>To navigate the potential political fallout, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink briefed senior leaders in the Trump administration, including the president, to secure their backing for the takeover, two people briefed on the matter said. One of the people added that the consortium would not have gone forward with its bid if they believed the US government would not support the deal.<\/p>\n<p>Controlled by Hong Kong\u2019s richest man Li Ka-shing and his family, CK Hutchison has a portfolio of ports, retail, telecoms and other infrastructure. Ports operations made up about 9 per cent of CK Hutchison\u2019s total revenue of HK$461.6bn in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The canal has become a flashpoint in Trump\u2019s first weeks back in office, as he looks to expand the US\u2019s borders and take control of infrastructure assets \u2014\u00a0roiling allies and countries that had profited from decades of growing free trade.<\/p>\n<p>The deal with BlackRock comes after the asset manager\u2019s acquisition of GIP, which helped make it a force in infrastructure investing. <\/p>\n<p>The strategically important waterway is run by the Panama Canal Authority, an arm of Panama\u2019s government. It was built by American engineers and run by the US from its opening in 1914 until a treaty in 1977 agreed a staged handover to Panama, which was completed in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>Hutchison Ports, one of the world\u2019s biggest operators of container terminals, has managed the ports at either end of the canal since 1997 under concessions from Panama\u2019s government. <\/p>\n<p>The facilities have often attracted political comment from US politicians who have alleged that CK Hutchison\u2019s role means China in effect controls the canal. <\/p>\n<p>The facilities mainly operate as \u201ctrans-shipment\u201d ports where containers are moved between ships transiting the canal and smaller \u201cfeeder\u201d ships shuttling to destinations around the Caribbean and the Pacific coast of South and Central America.<\/p>\n<p>CK Hutchison arranged a new concession in 2021 to keep operating the ports for another 25 years.<\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Robert Wright in London<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b3a1ea24-72c6-4fad-9de1-e7411048ad31\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world BlackRock has agreed to buy two major ports on the Panama Canal from their Hong Kong-based owner as part of a $22.8bn deal, following pressure from Donald Trump over alleged Chinese influence at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldBlackRock has agreed to buy two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump | Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldBlackRock has agreed to buy two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-05T02:03:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-05T02:03:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2F936de48a-bcfd-4f25-a803-ee4a08f2e252.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\"},\"headline\":\"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-05T02:03:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-05T02:03:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\"},\"wordCount\":707,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\",\"name\":\"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump | Prosfunds\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-05T02:03:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-05T02:03:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldBlackRock has agreed to buy two\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"width\":780,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Funding Factories\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump | Prosfunds","description":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldBlackRock has agreed to buy two","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump | Prosfunds","og_description":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldBlackRock has agreed to buy two","og_url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711","og_site_name":"Prosfunds","article_published_time":"2025-03-05T02:03:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-05T02:03:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2F936de48a-bcfd-4f25-a803-ee4a08f2e252.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6"},"headline":"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump","datePublished":"2025-03-05T02:03:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-05T02:03:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711"},"wordCount":707,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711","name":"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump | Prosfunds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-03-05T02:03:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-05T02:03:10+00:00","description":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldBlackRock has agreed to buy two","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=55711#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports after pressure from Donald Trump"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","name":"Funding Factories","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization","name":"Funding Factories","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","width":780,"height":140,"caption":"Funding Factories"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55713,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55711\/revisions\/55713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}