WASHINGTON - The Dubai-owned company that promised to surrender its U.S. port operations has no immediate plans to sell its U.S. subsidiary's interests at Miami's seaport, a senior executive wrote Monday in a private e-mail to business associates.
Even if DP World were to sell its Miami operations to quell the congressional furor over an Arab-owned company managing major U.S. ports, "that would probably take a while," wrote Robert Scavone, a vice president for DP World's U.S. subsidiary.
The e-mail, obtained by The Associated Press, added to questions raised since DP World's announcement last week that it will divest U.S. port operations it acquired when it bought London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
DP World has said those operations are worth roughly $700 million.
That's a pretty penny for DP World to be giving up. Then again, consider how many ports that DP World would be managing--about 22 ports. Here's a list of the ports that DP World would be managing or operating as a result of the deal. The whole point of this deal was to get DP World involved in the shipping operations within the U.S. market, and the last thing that DP World would want to do is give up that profitable market. Unfortunately with the concerns being raised, where the government of the United Arab Emirates--which controls DP World--could have access to security plans for these U.S. ports which could allow the infiltration of terrorists into the U.S. mainland, has caused DP World's acquisition strategy to be delayed. It hasn't been cancelled, nor has the deal gone through yet. At this point, the deal is in limbo. Consider this:
Last week, DP World backed away from the deal further. It pledged to "transfer fully" its U.S. operations to an unspecified American company and said DP World will not suffer economic loss.
The company has steadfastly declined to clarify its statement or the timing of any possible sale, and leading congressional critics have threatened to intervene if DP World's plans fall short of a full divestiture of its U.S. operations.
"As for the 'pending situation,' I myself am not aware of anything about it that would alter the ownership of POMTOC, so unless one or both of our esteemed partners have separately advised you that they plan to sell their interests, you should assume for your own purposes of managing the company that ownership of POMTOC is not going to change," Scavone wrote.
"And even if they do plan to sell, that would probably take a while," he wrote. Scavone's e-mail responded to an earlier message proposing a formal review of the port company's budget, "once the pending situation is resolved and ownership of POMTOC is established."
If DP World does plan to sell its Miami port operations, it would take a while? So what is the time frame that is classified as "a while?" A month? Six months? A year? And while the Miami port operations are up for sale, you can bet that DP World will continue managing the Miami port operations until a buyer comes in to purchase the Miami port. And not only is it just the Miami port, but it is also all the other U.S. ports that DP World would have to divest itself of, if Congress decides to pass legislation killing this deal. DP World could try to sell them all off as a single transaction to another large shipping and management company, or try to sell each port off individually. Either way, it will take time for such a transaction to take place.
And until that transaction takes place, DP World would continue managing those ports.
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