Maersk sells stake in Yantian

The world's biggest shipping liner A.P. Moller-Maersk has agreed to sell a stake in China's Yantian container terminal to an arm of COSCO Pacific for $520 million.

Maersk and a wholly-owned subsidiary Orion Ltd will sell their 13.7% stake in Sigma Enterprises, which owns an interest in Yantian International Container Terminal, to COSCO Pacific's subsidiary Crestway International Ltd, Maersk announced Thursday.

"The transaction is expected to generate an accounting gain in the order of $300-400 million in 2010," Maersk said in a statement.

The transaction requires consent from other Sigma shareholders and approval from shareholders in COSCO Pacific and China COSCO Holdings Co Ltd, and is expected to be completed by the end of July.

"This divestment is part of an active portfolio management," said Kim Fejfer, CEO of APM Terminals, Maersk's container terminal arm.

"We held a minority stake and we were not operator in Yantian. We received a fair offer, and this will enable us to focus on growing our business in areas where we can add value through our strong project management and safe and efficient operations.

"China is an important growth market for APM Terminals and we are dedicated to serving the needs of our customers in China. We remain very positive on the container port market in China and globally.''

APM Terminals has operations and holds stakes in terminals throughput China at the ports of Dalian, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen