COSCO Pacific Limited (“COSCO Pacific” or the Company) entered into a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement (“Agreement”) with ECT Participations B.V. (“ECT”) which is a subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings Limited (“HPH”), to acquire a 35% equity interest in Euromax Terminal Rotterdam (“Euromax”).  A signing ceremony was held in Shanghai on 11 May 2016 witnessed by Zhang Wei, Managing Director of COSCO Pacific and Eric S.C. Ip, Group Managing Director of HPH. 

According to the Agreement, the consideration for the Acquisition comprises of €41.43 million for 35% of the equity share of EUROMAX and payment for assignment of 35% of the shareholder’s loan.

Euromax is located at the area of Maasvlakte I of Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The terminal is an automatic container terminal which commenced operation in mid-2010. The total area including Phase 1 and Phase 2 is 1.21 million square metres with a total quay length of 1,800 metres and a draft depth of 16.65 metres. After the completion of expansion, the maximum annual handling capacity can reach to 3.2 million TEU.  The total throughput in 2015 was about 2.28 million TEU.

The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and one of the major hub ports in the world.  Rotterdam is located at the junction of land-based "Silk Road Economic Belt" and ocean-going "Maritime Silk Road".  Furthermore, it is situated at the end of the European side of new Asia-Europe economic corridor.  Based on the medium to long-term development trend, the Port of Rotterdam will continue to be Europe's main hub. 

Rotterdam has been the base port of container shipping business of China COSCO Shipping Group (“the Group”) in North-western Europe for a long time. It is expected that the Group will continue to deploy ultra-large container vessels to its European route, and the Port of Rotterdam will be its main hub in the region. The acquisition is not only in line with COSCO Pacific’s strategy of investing in overseas hubs, but also allow the Company to form a good synergy with the container shipping business of the Group and provide comprehensive terminal services to the Ocean Alliance.