 |
TORONTO (November 23, 2006): Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan today announced it has signed an agreement with Orient Overseas (International) Limited of Hong Kong to purchase four marine container terminals in North America for US$2.4 billion. The assets will be held within the pension plan’s infrastructure and timber portfolio, which totals US$6.5 billion with this acquisition.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is the sole acquirer. In-house staff negotiated the agreement on the plan’s behalf.
The operations include New York Container Terminal, Staten Island, New York; Global Terminal and Container Systems, Inc., Bayonne, New Jersey; and TSI Terminal Systems Inc.’s Deltaport and Vanterm facilities in Delta and Vancouver, British Columbia. Combined annual sales of the operations total approximately US$500 million. The transaction is subject to Canadian and U.S. regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
“This acquisition represents solid, robust assets, has little vulnerability to market or economic vagaries, and features a very attractive growth profile that we will support and will serve us well into the future,” said Jim Leech, Senior Vice-President, Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investment arm of the pension plan. “It is well priced from an investment value perspective and offers the long-term cash flow we look for as a pension plan. We are thrilled to welcome these assets into our portfolio and are keenly focused on continuing to invest in and expand the terminals.”
Ontario Teachers’ was an initial investor in the infrastructure sector, launching its entry in 2002. This acquisition joins its growing international infrastructure portfolio, which also includes such world-class assets as Express Pipeline System (petroleum export pipeline), Scotia Gas Networks (gas distribution), InterGen N.V. (power generation), and Northumbrian Water Group (water supply and wastewater services).
Container terminals are the interface between sea and land-based container transport. Each of the operations in this agreement comprises a container terminal facility within a port, where containers are either loaded onto ships from trucks or trains or are unloaded from ships for further transport by either truck or rail to their destinations.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is an independent corporation responsible for investing the US$84 billion fund and administering the pensions of Ontario’s 163,000 elementary and secondary school teachers and 101,000 retired teachers. Its Infrastructure Group focuses on the acquisition and long-term retention of low-risk assets with return profiles that are strongly correlated to inflation. The combined value of the plan’s infrastructure and timber, and private equity assets is approximately US$12 billion.
Contact:
Deborah Allan
Director, Communications and Media Relations
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
(416) 730-5347
deborah_allan@otpp.com |
|
