SINGAPORE : Singapore's PSA International has made an approach to acquire British container ports and ferries operator P&O, rivalling an offer by a Dubai-based firm.
The Singapore port operator did not give a value for its proposal but the London-based Financial Times said it was worth 3.53 billion pounds (6.2 billion US dollars).
"PSA International confirms that it has made an approach to The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O)," the Singapore company said in a statement to AFP on Wednesday without giving details.
While PSA's approach has yet to evolve into a formal proposal, the figure given by the Financial Times is higher than the 3.33 billion-pound offer for P&O by Dubai's state-owned port operator, DP World.
P&O, in a statement on its website dated January 10, said its board of directors has "received an approach from PSA ... which may lead to an offer to acquire the whole of the P&O deferred stock at 470 pence in cash per unit."
PSA's proposal "does not amount to a firm intention to make an offer" and is subject to some pre-conditions, including the completion of "satisfactory due dilligence", final PSA board approval and a green light from P&O's pension fund trustees, the British company said.
P&O said it has deferred for two weeks a stockholders' meeting scheduled for January 20 to allow PSA "a limited period of time to satisfy its pre-conditions and put forward a formal offer."
P&O is the world's fourth largest container terminal operator by capacity.
If PSA, currently in third place worldwide, successfully merges with P&O, it would overtake Hong Kong-based rival Hutchison Ports as the market leader, the Financial Times said.
PSA, wholly owned by state-linked Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings, has investments in 18 port projects across 11 countries including Belgium, Brunei, China, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, South Korea and Thailand.
- AFP /ct