When Dubai Ports World takes over P&O, I assume that it will take over terminal operations in other countries besides the US. In particular, P&O operates some terminals in Britain, France, and Belgium. Will these be run by DPW once the takeover happens?
Is there anything like the furor being raised in the US? Note: In addition to those countries I listed in item #1, DPW already manages terminal operations in at least one port in Germany and one in Australia.
Let’s be sure to keep this at the GQ level here. No need to expound on the goodness or badness of the deals, I’m just interested in the situation in other countries. How much opposition is there?
In Germany it is an inland port on the Rhine, so it’s probably not quite the same situation because it is only connected to neighboring countries. Until today I had never even heard of that.
Currently the Mayor (and because it is a “city state” Governour and Senator) of Hamburg, Germany’s most important port, is looking for an investor for the city-owned port operator. There is some resistance against that in general, but not against any particular candidate as far as I can tell. I didn’t follow this in any detail, but I haven’t heard of security concerns, only economic ones. There is fear that an investment by a direct competitor could weaken the port or that any outside investor could endanger jobs. In addition to that the city would lose influence on key parts of its infrastructure.
By neighboring countries, do you mean only within the EU or literally only those countries that border on Germany, or something else?
What would be the concern about the operator being a “direct competitor”? A direct competitor of what? How is the current operator, P&O, which is a British company, not considered a direct competitor?
No fuss whatsover, here. I don’t think anybody could possibly get worked up about who operates the ports at Tilbury and Southampton. We’re completely used to big companies being owned by foreign firms, including utilities, transport, etc.
The Rhine connects the Netherlands, Germany, France and Switzerland (non-EU) and more if you include connected rivers and canals. Given that the Rhine is relatively easy to monitor and that there are no routine checks of persons crossing borders within the area of the Schengen treaty - all of western and nothern mainland Europe except Switzerland (until 2007) - an inland port doesn’t seem to add much risk.
Ideally they would want a company that does not manage a comparable port nearby because they might focus on more competitive ports and reduce traffic in Hamburg. However this is almost exclusively Hamburg-internal politics, the country as a whole doesn’t care that much.