China Merchants Port Holdings acquires major stake in Brazilian port operator

China Merchants Port Holdings has reached an agreement to purchase a 90% stake in TCP Participações, the container terminal operator of Port of Paranagua in Brazil, for HK$7.23bn ($924m).

The purchase price will funded by a combination of internal resources of the company and external debt financing.

TCP Participações is the second largest container terminal in Brazil in terms of capacity. The terminal’s expansion project is expected to commence later this year and completed by the second half of 2019.

China Merchants Port Holdings has been investing in international port assets to complete its global network. The company said this latest acquisition will allow the company to expand its business to the Latin America region and the investment will provide the company the opportunity to make use of the marine transportation hub of TCP to develop its logistics network.

China Merchants Port Holdings signed an investment deal in Djibouti in January and it also clinched a deal to operate Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port in July.