Private Markets Eye Ports

BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners is among the firms studying a bid for a controlling stake in Associated British Ports, the biggest port operator in the United Kingdom. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on April 8 that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Brookfield Asset Management and DP World are also in the early mix. The report said Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Omers Administration are exploring a sale of their combined 64 percent stake at about £10 billion. (bloomberg.com, agbi.com) Associated British Ports says it runs 21 ports across England, Scotland and Wales. The company says those ports handle more than a quarter of British port volumes. (abports.co.uk, abports.co.uk) The United Kingdom’s Department for Transport says around 85 percent of the country’s international freight by weight and around 55 percent by value moves by sea. That keeps ports in the center of trade, warehousing, road links and energy projects even when cargo volumes swing with the economy. (gov.uk) BlackRock’s interest comes through Global Infrastructure Partners, the infrastructure manager it finished buying on October 1, 2024. BlackRock said that deal created a larger platform spanning infrastructure equity, debt and solutions. (blackrock.com) That helps explain why ports are showing up in private-market portfolios. They collect fees from long-lived assets such as quays, storage yards, rail spurs and energy connections, and owners can spend over years on grid upgrades, shore power and new fuels rather than chase quick turnover. (blackrock.com, abports.co.uk) Associated British Ports’ own filings show the business is still a conventional industrial operator, not a pure clean-energy play. Its 2024 accounts reported £756.6 million in revenue, up from £707.2 million in 2023, across cargo, property and related services. (uploads2.craft.co) The company has also been pitching ports as sites for energy-transition spending. Associated British Ports says it supports more than half of the United Kingdom’s offshore wind and has backed projects including Green Port Hull and planned floating wind infrastructure at Port Talbot. (abports.co.uk, port-alliance.eu) Any sale would still test a basic tension in infrastructure investing. Ports can benefit from electrification and cleaner-fuel projects, but they also handle oil, gas, cars, containers and bulk cargo, so buyers have to underwrite both decarbonization spending and old-economy trade flows. (gov.uk, abports.co.uk) For now, the process is still at the interest stage rather than a signed deal. But the lineup around Associated British Ports shows how private capital is treating ports less like simple docks and more like long-duration logistics platforms. (bloomberg.com, blackrock.com)