Two major Panama Canal ports have been sold from their Hong Kong owner to a consortium including American multinational investment company BlackRock.
It comes after US President Donald Trump expressed a desire for America to “take back” the key shipping lane from alleged Chinese control.
Hong Kong-based logistics giant CK Hutchison Holdings announced plans to sell a majority stake in the business that controls Balboa and Cristobal ports – which sit at each end of the shipping lane.
The sale is of a 90% interest in Panama Ports Company, which is contracted to run the important ports until 2047.
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The Panamanian ports are being sold to a consortium including US financial behemoth BlackRock for nearly $23bn (£17.8bn).
It comes after President Donald Trump applied pressure to end what he says is China‘s influence and control over the important shipping lane through which most goods pass.
As part of wider comments, on taking control of other sovereign territories, Mr Trump threatened earlier this year to “take [the canal] back” having said, “China is running the Panama Canal”.
However, on Wednesday, CK Hutchinson Holdings insisted that the deal was “wholly unrelated to recent political news”.
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The deal was made a month after a visit to Panama City by US secretary of state Marco Rubio and was welcomed by Trump on Tuesday night.
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“My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” Mr Trump told Congress.
“Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals.”
The purchase is part of a wider deal for Hutchison Port’s global business. In total, the consortium will control 43 ports in 23 countries, CK Hutchison Holdings said.
The conglomerate pushed back against the idea the deal was impacted by politics.
“I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,” CK Hutchison co-managing director Frank Sixt said.
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CK Hutchison Holdings is also the owner of UK mobile phone network Three, which is being merged with Vodafone to form the UK’s biggest provider.
Why does the Panama Canal matter?
The shipping artery is of vital importance as more than three-quarters of vessels passing through originate or are bound for the United States.
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Roughly 12,000 ships used the Panama Canal last year.
