The Hindu Business Line : JNPT box terminal project bid — ULA ropes in Hamburg Port Authority as equity partner

UNITED Liner Agencies (India) Pvt Ltd, part of the J.M. Baxi Group, has roped in Hamburg Port Authority as its new equity partner holding 26 per cent stake to bid for developing a new container terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru port (JN port).

Hamburg Port Authority will replace CDC Capital Partners (an affiliate of CDC Group plc, UK) who withdrew from the ULA-led consortium just before the financial and technical bids were submitted by the short-listed bidders on December 1, 2003.

The final consortium members list was submitted by ULA to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) on Monday.

The Board of Trustees of the JNPT, at a meeting held on January 20, had decided to give time till February 16 to all the bidders to submit their final consortium members list, and till February 20 to submit their technical corrections.

"Apart from picking up equity in the consortium, the Hamburg Port Authority will also help ULA meet the net worth criteria for bidders prescribed by the JNPT and qualify for bidding," a senior company official told Business Line.

Following the departure of CDC from its consortium, ULA had submitted the technical and financial bid on its own along with a request to the JNPT seeking time to bring in a new partner in place of CDC.

ULA had qualified for bidding on the financial strength of CDC and required a new partner to fulfil the financial criteria set by the JNPT.

ULA had earlier entered into a technical services agreement with the Hamburg Port Authority to act as its terminal operator in case it wins the bid to develop the new container terminal.

"This association is now being converted into an equity partnership," the official said.

Hamburg Port Authority, a public-listed entity, operates Hamburg port, one of the largest container ports in Northern Europe apart from several other container terminals across the globe.

The JNPT had also given time up to February 20 to the Maersk-Concor consortium to correct the deficiencies in its technical bid.

"We will be submitting the clarifications sought by the JNPT either by Thursday or on Friday before the one-month deadline ends," a Maersk official said.

The other bidders who had submitted their technical and financial bids for developing the project are PSA Corporation Ltd-Bombay Dyeing Group and Marubeni Corporation-Evergreen Marine Corp.

The bids submitted by these two entities were found to be in order.

The fifth bidder, namely, the French container line CMA-CGM with CSX World Terminals as its terminal operator had submitted the technical and financial bids without the bid bond of Rs 4.5 crore following the departure of Sea King Infrastructure Ltd from its consortium.

"CMA-CGM-CSX World Terminals Ltd still has time till February 20 to submit its bid bond and be in the race for the project," an official said.

While all the five bidders were given equal opportunity by the JNPT to change or bring in new partners in their respective consortia on or before February 16, only ULA submitted the document of final consortium members list announcing its decision to bring in Hamburg Port Authority as its new equity partner.

"All the other four bidding consortia chose to stick to their respective consortium members," the official said.