Tuesday, March, 19, 2024 12:08:28

The acquisition will allow DP World to offer services to shipping lines and cargo owners across five key gateways on the west coast of South America.

Dubai-based global port operator, DP World has recently announced that it has agreed to acquire a 71.3% stake in Chile’s logistics company, Puertos y Logistica (Pulogsa) from regional holding company Minera Valparaiso and shareholders linked with the Matte Group.

For the record, Pulogsa operates a long-term concession for Puerto Central, San Antonio and maintains and ensures the operations of the Puerto Lirquen port in southern Chile. The company is listed on the Santiago stock exchange and has a market value of about $170 million, claim reports.

According to Bloomberg, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, CEO, DP World, said that the new assets will enable DP World to serve shipping lines and cargo owners at five key gateways on the west coast of South America namely in Paita and Callao (Peru), Posorja (Ecuador) and Lirquen and San Antonio (Chile). He said that the overall value proposed for these terminals is convincing and that the addition of new capacity to the company’s portfolio will help drive long-term value to all its stakeholders.

Sources close to the deal state that the agreement is reliant on a tender to attain all outstanding shares of Pulogsa.

According to a statement, DP World said that it further considers offering around $502 million for acquiring 100% equity ownership of the Chile-based company. It said that Pulogsa has net debt of $226 million as of September 30, 2018 and that the deal was expected to close in the first half of the year 2019.

DP World added that the company expects the deal to be income accretive in the first year of consolidation and would be funded from existing balance resources.