Buy by Blackrock and MSC of two ports in Channel de Panama opens several scenarios

The purchase of two ports near the Panama Canal by the consortium composed of the American Assets Manager Blackrock and Terminal Investment Limited (Til), the port arm of the Giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), opens scenarios not exempt from complexity in the Central American country, which has been the target of an attack campaign and misinformation of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, precisely because of those terminals.

The ports object of the transaction are Balboa (Pacific) and Cristóbal (Atlantic), operated since 1997 by the company Panama Ports Company (PPC)which since 2015 belongs to the Hongkonese group CK Hutchison Holdings.

That has been Trump’s excuse to accuse an alleged Chinese control over the aquatic route and ensure that he will recover it for the United States, which built it at the beginning of the 20th century and operated it for more than 80 years, until its transfer to Panama on December 31, 1999.

In the statement announcing the purchase-sale agreement, CK Hutchison denies that the transaction is related “With recent political news reports on Panama ports”, But in a speech before the United States Congress the same day the transaction was revealed, this week, Trump called Victoria and said that his government had begun to recover the navigable step.

“Again President Trump lies. The Panama Canal is not in the process of recovery (…) the channel is Panamanian and will remain Panamanian!”, Replied, again, the president of the Central American country, José Raúl Mulino.

Ports under the magnifying glass of the Supreme and the Comptroller

The announcement of the purchase and sale agreement of the two Panamanian ports takes place when the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) analyzes a demand for unconstitutionality against the contract law that covers the concession, signed in 1997 and automatically renewed per end in June in June 2021, in the midst of alleged corruption and unfavorable conditions for the Panamanian State, which has 10% of the shares.

Already the Attorney General, Luis Carlos Gómez, described as “unconstitutional“The law contract when issuing an opinion requested by the highest court, which”It is mandatory but not binding”, As the analyst José Eugenio Stoute explains to Efe.

This opens several scenarios: if the contract is declared constitutional “no problem”but if the Court decides its unconstitutionality, a new one would have to be done and by means of the tender. That is to say, “The purchase made by Hutchison would be undone”, The Black-Til consortium disappears, says Stoute.

In addition, the Comptroller General initiated on January 20 a financial and compliance with PPC, a week after the head of that agency, Anel Flores, affirmed that the concessionaire is giving him “Very little revenue“To Panama.

In his announcement in accordance, the Consortium declares that “The PPC transaction will proceed separately after confirmation by the Panama Government of the proposed purchase and sale terms”90% of Hutchison’s participation in the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal.

The operation also covers the 80% participation that CK Hutchison has in 43 ports in 23 countries for more than US $ 22,000 million.

The details of this transaction have not been disclosed, as usual at this stage of the process, but in Panama some already wonder if the matter was treated by Mulino and the president of the MSC group, Diego Aponte, when they met in Zurich (Switzerland) last January in the framework of the Davos forum.

Thinking positive

“You have to see this in a positive way”Says the former administrator of the Jorge Quijano channel, noting that one of the first effects of the change of operator of the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal is that “The entire plot of President Trump is disassembled that the Chinese control the channel, which is not true, and takes away some pressure on Panama” In that sense.

Also, Quijano adds, the possibility of renegotia the concession contract opens, because the current “surely has some edges that will jump with the audit“Of the Comptroller, in addition to the”legal edges “ That the Supreme can point out.

And this can encourage the Danish Naviera Maersk, the main client of the channel, to look for an investment opportunity in a new port, as he wanted to do years ago with the failed Corozal project that promoted the channel, the expert points out during an event of the newspaper La Prensa.

Quijano explains that “50%“From the load that Balboa handles is from Maersk and that to this shipping company, the second largest in the world, only overcome – and for a short time – by MSc, it must be”causing some headache“That now that port will be operated by its main competitor.

“The diversity of competition is very good”, Highlights Quijano, noting that in addition to Maersk and MSC, both clients of the channel can attract other operators to build more ports and further prop up the Panamanian logistics system.

The five main ports of Panama are in the adjacent areas of the interoceanic channel. They are operated by multinationals from the United States, Singapore, Taiwan and, for now, Hong Kong, and are among the largest containers movement on the continent.