High Court bid to block P&O deal (US company will try to block)

[Amonester]

From BBC News site:

High Court bid to block P&O deal

A US company will try to block the controversial £3.9bn ($6.8bn) takeover of shipping giant P&O by a Dubai firm in the High Court in London on Monday.

Miami-based Eller & Co has lodged a petition arguing the purchase by Dubai Ports World may harm its interests.

Dubai Ports World (DPW) has meanwhile agreed to a 45-day review of the security implications of the deal in an effort to assuage US concerns.

The company said it was surprised by the outcry over the bid.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4752524.stm

[jimshoes]

1. So many questions have not even been asked

yet about this bit of chicanery. Like do they have to follow US law since they are operating on US soil? Do they enjoy diplomatic immunity since they are a foreign government? Will they thumb their noses at US courts if served with a subpoena? Which US agency gets a copy of every manifest? Will they hire their own workforce? Just how many ports are involved? These are just a few off the top of my head. Very few answers have surfaced at all. A lot of arguments why this should go forward are cropping up but few solid answers.

[splat]

4. Fishy terms. What's in it for us? Why does Bush want it so badly?

JImshoes: yet about this bit of chicanery. Like do they have to follow US law since they are operating on US soil?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5640688,00.html">Arab Co., White House Had Secret Agreement, Guardian

The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries....

...Under the deal, the government asked Dubai Ports to operate American seaports with existing U.S. managers "to the extent possible.'' It promised to take "all reasonable steps'' to assist the Homeland Security Department, and it pledged to continue participating in security programs to stop smuggling and detect illegal shipments of nuclear materials.

The administration required Dubai Ports to designate an executive to handle requests from the U.S. government, but it did not specify this person's citizenship.

It said Dubai Ports must retain paperwork "in the normal course of business'' but did not specify a time period or require corporate records to be housed in the United States. Outside experts familiar with such agreements said such provisions are routine in other cases.

Josh Marshall wrote,

The failure to require the company to keep business records on US soil sounds like a pretty open invitation to flout US law as near as I can tell. Forget terrorism. This is the sort of innovative business arrangement I would think a number of Bush-affiliated American companies might want to get in on. Perhaps Halliburton could be domiciled in Houston, pay its taxes in Bermuda, do its business in Iraq and keep its business records in Jordan.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007733.php">link

[seafan]

2. Eller & Co: Deal may lead to US port auth's revoking licenses/leases

snip

However, a judge is now expected to hear Eller & Co's petition to have the deal blocked, made late on Friday evening.

Eller, which provides stevedoring services at the port of Miami, is expected to argue that the deal could be revoked in the US and that it breaches contractual agreements it has with P&O.

'Licence threat'

"There is a real prospect that the arrangement will lead to US port authorities revoking licences and leases held by joint venture companies which will cause sever(sic) financial losses," its petition states.

snip


IMHO, if this deal is forced through against our will, a national strike may follow.

[Amonester]

3. Sure looks like a "David" (Eller & Co) vs. "Golliath" (P&O)

Eller-ITO Stevedoring Co., L.L.C ("Under Construction") :

http://www.ellerito.com/

They've got phone&fax numbers there so I wonder if a little "GO GUYS GO!!" support campaign from (I dunno, maybe the DU Activists, maybe the DNC...) could "help" them "win over" the "Big Bad" (other side)?

Otherwise, national strike will be necessary. We shall monitor that ruling tomorrow for sure.

[Amonester]

5. (Unions rel.): Port workers point to holes in security

By LULADEY B. TADESSE
The News Journal
02/26/2006

For 18 years, Charles Hardin has earned a living hauling everything from Chilean grapes to automobiles out of the belly of ships at the Port of Wilmington.

The cargo Hardin handles is coming from overseas or headed around the world, from El Salvador to New Zealand. It's more common for him to see a ship flying a foreign flag than an American one. And he can rattle off the names of Middle Eastern ports where automobiles from Wilmington are headed: Amman, Doha, Jeddah, Dubai.

Yet news of the sale of 50 percent of Hardin's employer to Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business from the United Arab Emirates, makes him uneasy.

"The ports are so vulnerable as it already is," said 47-year-old Hardin, of Wilmington, who works for Delaware River Stevedores, which loads and unloads cargo. "I don't think it was very good decision-making by George Bush, especially the nation being on some kind of terrorist threat."

More:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060226/NEWS/602260355/1006

[Amonester]

6. A few more details on the Eller & Co bid from another source.

The Sunday Times - Business
The Sunday Times February 26, 2006

Legal threat to P&O takeover
Dominic O’Connell

~snip~
Tomorrow’s hearing was meant to rubber-stamp the “scheme of arrangement” under which Dubai Ports World (DPW), a group owned by the state of Dubai, would buy P&O.

But Eller says the judge should stop the deal because it might be blocked in America, and because its interests have been harmed by P&O’s sale to DPW. Eller has filed a similar suit in America.

The High Court documents show Eller bought 10 shares in P&O on January 18, which it claims gives it the right to make submissions to the hearing.

Eller says there is a “real prospect” that America will block the deal. It claims that the DPW acquisition breaks the terms of its joint-venture agreement with P&O, which stipulates P&O cannot sell its shares to anyone other than a “permitted transferee”. “DPW is not a permitted transferee,” it says."

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2058574,00.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. Someone needs to...

See who Eller&Co. and its pricipals have contributed politically.

Just sayin'...

[Amonester]

8. True. (Hoping you know that information.) n/t

[Amonester]

9. I found this one (looks like 'humanitarian' - non political)

http://www.positiveconnections.org/kudos.html

(Still searching.)

[Amonester]

10. Found those "allegations" on the "other" site but...

like (almost) everything else posted there, I doubt it's true...

Anyhow, here's a post by seafan here on DU (that showed up in my searches):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2454971&mesg_id=2455762

[IsItJustMe]

11. Not gonna go through in the short term.

Sounds like I have heard of a number of court cases being filed against this deal on several differ nt fronts.

States, cities, Unions, you name it. Seems to me it's gonna take a long time to get this through.