Rumours over port’s future
Talk that a global port operator is looking at taking over Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL) operations has been met with opposition by the city’s new mayor.
The NZ Herald reports that senior executives from DP World may be in Auckland as early as next week for secret talks on securing a lease to run POAL.
This could be under an operator company, property company model, which would result in the council continuing to own port land in the CBD and DP World securing a long-term lease to run the port business.
David Lewis, a principal with the government relations agency Thomson Lewis, says the agency is “doing a bit of work” with DP World, but declined to comment further about that.
A second NZH source says meetings have been scheduled for next week in Auckland involving senior executives from DP World, including Asia-Pacific and Australasia CEO and managing director Glen Hilton, his business development manager Sean Barrett and Anil Mohta, senior vice-president for finance and business development.
The source adds the executives plan to meet with the NZ Super Fund, POAL and Auckland Council officers.
Last week, Wayne Brown, Mayor of Auckland, set out his expectations for POAL in a letter to Jan Dawson, its board chairwoman. “I am not interested in any arrangement involving a long-term lease, which would lock the port into its current footprint for decades,” he said in it.
The NZH article describes Auckland Council as being “cagey” about DP World, saying at first it wasn’t correct that representatives of the two companies are visiting city and the council has no plans to meet with them.
This was followed by procurement general manager Jazz Singh stating the council is aware of DP World and frequently gets approached by entities about buying or taking an interest in council assets.
“This includes recent interest in, and speculation on, the council’s shareholder relationship with POAL,” Singh told the NZH. “On these occasions, we follow due process, which typically comes with obligations of confidentiality.”
DP World is based in Dubai. It has more than 70 marine and inland terminals in 40 countries, including four container terminals in Australia. Click here to read the NZH article in full.
