Chinese consortium buys 65% stake of Turkish port terminal

BEIJING - A joint venture set up by a Chinese investor consortium has bought a 65 percent share of Turkey's third largest container terminal for $940 million, the company reported Thursday.

The acquisition was made Wednesday by a firm jointly established by the subsidiaries of COSCO Pacific, China Merchants Holdings (International) and an affiliate with the China Investment Corporation, according to a report filed by China COSCO Holdings to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

COSCO Pacific is a subsidiary of China COSCO Holdings, the country's largest shipper.

The investors purchased Kumport Terminal, located on the northwest coast of the Marmara Sea on the European side of Istanbul. It's able to handle 1.84 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of cargo and has room for expansion to up to 3.5 million TEU capacity.

Located at a gateway to the Black Sea and a strategic interchange between Europe and Asia, the terminal maintained a compound annual growth rate of around 30 percent in container volume over the past five years, according to the report.

It said the deal is a valuable investment opportunity for COSCO Pacific to enhance its terminal profitability, as the terminal has a good growth prospect while Turkey is a strategic location along the Belt and Road, an infrastructure and trade network proposed by China.