The Persian Gulf monarchy of Dubai has agreed to acquire a London-based port company that also owns the developable portions of the Denver Tech Center and the Meridian office parks.
Dubai is buying Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. for $5.7 billion to become the world’s third-largest port operator, gaining container terminals from Britain to China.
The Denver Tech Center was one of the first suburban office parks in the U.S. when it was developed in 1962. It is at the junction of two major freeways, Interstates 25 and 225.
Meridian, further south of the Tech Center and also on I-25, is headquarters or regional headquarters for such companies as EchoStar, Royal & Sunalliance, First Data, American Family Insurance, Liberty Media and CH2M Hill, according to its website.
DP World, Dubai’s port company, offered 443 pence a share in cash for P&O, DP World said in a statement. That’s 43 percent more than P&O’s closing price on Oct. 28, the final trading day before P&O said it was in talks.
The acquisition, the largest ever by a Persian Gulf monarchy, adds to the $3.5 billion the sheikdom has spent on foreign assets this year to reduce its dependence on the region’s oil. DP World will trail only Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Singapore’s PSA International Pte. after the acquisition of P&O, which was founded in 1837 to support Britain’s imperial expansion.
“Dubai has pots of money and they have been targeting the international ports business,” said John Lawson, an analyst in London at Investec Securities, who downgraded P&O to a “hold” from a “buy” today. “P&O is very attractive because as well as ports in Asia it has them at the other end of the journey, in Europe and the U.S.”
Shares of P&O rose as much as 6 pence, or 1.4 percent, to 441 pence and were up 0.9 percent to 438.75 pence at 2:45 p.m. in London. The company, which also operates a ferry business, has about 22,000 employees.
Post wire services contributed to this report.
