Deal-doer who sold an empire: Dubai/US port deal (get ready to puke)

[NVMojo]

Sir John Parker, negotiator par excellence, has outdone even himself with the £3.9 bn sale of P&O to Dubai Ports, doubling its value. But he decries the xenophobia that emerged during the sale and tells Frank Kane why foreign ownership is no bad thing

Sunday February 19, 2006

Sir John Parker, as much as any P&O shareholder at the emotional meeting last week that signed away a century of corporate history, has a sentimental attachment to the company. 'One of the first ships I ever worked on was a P&O ship, the Canberra, when I was a young naval architect,' he says nostalgically.
There is genuine regret in his voice as he speaks of the sale of P&O to Dubai Ports - despite the fact he managed to more than double the value of the company by orchestrating an international auction that eventually fetched £3.9 billion. It was as shrewd a bit of deal-doing as the City has witnessed in many years.

'I didn't join P&O as chairman in order to sell it, but we looked at ways of expanding organically and couldn't find anything to buy,' he says. 'All the good stuff is owned by governments or by companies much bigger than ourselves. And at the end of the day we had a clear fiduciary duty and a very good offer. I am very honoured to have been chairman of such a great company.'

The sale ends a process that began in 2000, when the more glamorous P&O cruise business was sold to the giant American company Carnival. What remained was a string of 29 port terminals spanning the globe, a vestige of a British imperial past when P&O ruled the waves - and the docks - of the world.

more...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1712692,00.html

[MadMaddie]

1. Why do foreign companies own our ports?

:wtf:

[neuvocat]

2. Because we didn't have enough money to pay for the oil?

[sam sarrha]

3. so if they renig on the deal we wont be able to pay for shipping, in or out

[havocmom]

4. I'm thinking America just became a giant game preserve for the rich

and infamous.

The peskey natives (that'd be us)? Just send them off to reservations, as has been done for generations.

[WhiteTara]

6. because we're broke and owe other countries

lots of money. This is just the beginning, I am sure.

[pnorman]

5. "giant American company Carnival."

Carnival has headquarters in Miami Florida, but it does NOT fly the American flag. The corportion is registered in Panama, thereby evading effective labor, safety, and security laws.

pnorman