CHINA Merchants Holdings (International) Co, the owner of stakes in the nation's four busiest container ports, may sell assets including an interest in a Hong Kong tunnel to focus on its sea-cargo operations.
"We will consider selling other non-core assets including the tunnel at an appropriate time for an appropriate price," Chairman Fu Yuning told reporters after the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Hong Kong yesterday. China Merchants owns a 13 percent interest in Hong Kong's Western Harbor Tunnel, Lora Huang, a company spokeswoman, said by phone to Bloomberg News. China Merchants agreed to sell its Singapore-listed toll road unit to parent China Merchants Group for HK$2.95 billion (US$377 million), it said in a Hong Kong stock exchange statement yesterday. The sale proceeds will be used to fund new ports and port-related investments, according to the statement. Fu is expanding China Merchants' ports business as the country exports more clothing, computers and other goods to the United States and Europe. After taking a 30 percent stake in Shanghai International Port (Group) Co in 2005, the operator of China's busiest port, the company last year added to its holdings in Shenzhen.