Rebirth of England.

Chapter 744 Two Businesses
At the same time, Ed Christian, CEO of Peninsula Oriental Group, also arrived in Shanghai.

Ed Christian came to Shanghai after he went to America and reached an agreement with the American side to determine the timetable for Peninsula Oriental Group to take over the operation rights of six container terminals in America.

After Global Industrial Investment Fund (GII) acquired P&O Group, now Peninsula Oriental Group, from Dubai World Group at the end of last year, they began negotiations with the United States to regain the operating rights of the six container terminals there.

After Dubai World acquired British Plc, the United States had concerns about Dubai World's Middle Eastern background. Therefore, the United States approved the acquisition only after the other party handed over six container terminals in the United States to local American institutions for trusteeship.

Now that Peninsula Oriental Group is a British-owned company, given the relationship between Britain and America, their previous concerns are no longer valid, so Peninsula Oriental Group began to seek to regain the operating rights of six American ports.

Although the process was not smooth, it was eventually resolved.

Peninsula Oriental Group itself has many businesses in Asia, including China.

Whether in Hong Kong or mainland China, Peninsula Oriental Group has participated in the construction of many ports and related facilities.

This time when he came to the Magic City, Ed Christian had two main tasks.

First, it brought orders for natural gas (LNG) tankers.

Prior to this, Peninsula Oriental Group's shipping business was mainly container transportation, but it should be noted that Barron also controls United Energy Group, and also owns the largest natural gas pipeline network and British power distribution company in the UK. Therefore, whether it is to transport their natural gas to the UK, Europe, or Asia, they need natural gas (LNG) tankers.

Therefore, Peninsula Oriental Group’s shipping business also needs to increase its natural gas transportation business.

Currently, all of Peninsula Oriental Group’s natural gas tankers are leased, but Barron knows that the demand for LNG transportation will continue to increase in the future, so Peninsula Oriental Group has plans to purchase LNG tankers.

At this time, South Korean shipyards still account for the largest global share in the manufacturing of LNG carriers.

As we all know, during World War II, America's shipbuilding capabilities were very outstanding, but due to the introduction of the Jones Act, it was required that the main components of the hull must be manufactured in the United States, must fly the American flag, and more than 75% of all ships and more than 75% of the crew must be Americans.

This undoubtedly tied the country's own hands, restricting the development of the American shipbuilding industry and causing a sharp drop in shipbuilding orders.

Due to the high cost of shipbuilding in the United States, related industries were gradually transferred to South Korea.

China only started to develop LNG ship manufacturing technology at the end of the last century. At that time, South Korea and Japan had the most mature LNG transport ship technology. The two countries had been competing fiercely in this field. Ultimately, South Korea won and occupied the vast majority of the LNG ship market - even ten years later, South Korea's shipbuilding industry still occupied more than 70% of the global LNG ship manufacturing market.

As for Hua Xia, it was only in 2008 that it delivered the first LNG ship built by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of Hua Xia Shipbuilding Industry Group.

Up to now, China's shipyards have not yet opened up the international market, and the LNG ships built before were purchased by China's shipping group. It can be said that Shanghai is very eager for the order of LNG ships from Peninsula Oriental Group - Peninsula Oriental Group is preparing to build 5 LNG ships at one time.

After all, once this agreement is completed, it will officially mean that China's shipbuilding industry has overseas orders for the highest-end LNG ships, which is of great significance to them.

Being able to make something is one thing, being able to use it after making it is another.

It’s like a product that has never been purchased by a user, so no one dares to buy it first. After all, no one has heard of user feedback and doesn’t know what the quality is like.

This is the case with China's LNG ships. If they have not been used by overseas customers, it will be difficult to open up the international market. You know, at that time, Chinese manufacturing was not recognized by many people.

In fact, the management of Peninsula Oriental Group was initially quite skeptical about ordering LNG ships from China Shipyard, but in the end, at the instruction of Barron, Ed Christian came to Shanghai.

And relying on this order, Barron also hopes that Peninsula Oriental Group can deepen its relationship with China and participate in the construction and operation of some Chinese ports in the future.

The intention reached by both parties at present is that Peninsula Oriental Group is ready to invest US$7.5 million to order five LNG ships from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard.

With the help of Shanghai, they have also established contact with some shipping groups and port groups in China, and will cooperate in shipping and port management in the future.

This also involves another purpose of Ed Christian's visit to Shanghai this time. He also held talks with the top management of COSCO Group and proposed to them that Peninsula Oriental Group and COSCO Group cooperate to jointly bid for the controlling stake in the Port of Piraeus, the largest port in Greece.

In Barron's previous life, it was six or seven years later that COSCO Group acquired 67% of the shares of Piraeus Port.

In fact, COSCO Group had already participated in the competition for this port earlier, but after the leader of the Greek left-wing coalition Alexis Tsipras came to power, he suspended the process of privatizing its state-owned assets. The process was restarted after a period of time. After many twists and turns, COSCO Group finally obtained the controlling stake in the Port of Piraeus.

But last year, COSCO Group acquired the 40-year operating rights of Piraeus Port for 35 billion euros, but it still faces many difficulties in acquiring a controlling stake in the port.

However, if the Eastern Peninsula Bloc, backed by Barron, participates, it is still very likely that the two sides will cooperate to gain control of the port and finalize it before the Greek Left Coalition comes to power.

After all, due to the outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis in Greece, their creditors require Greece to sell part of its state-owned assets in exchange for funds to repay debts. According to the information obtained by Baron, the Greek government is also very interested in this and may start bidding for part of the state-owned assets, including the controlling stake in the Port of Piraeus, this year.

Therefore, after Peninsula Oriental Group proposed this cooperation plan, COSCO Group was still very interested and was also studying the feasibility of this plan.

You know, from a geographical point of view, the Port of Piraeus is the gateway to Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. If it can be developed into the largest port in the Mediterranean, it will be very important for the development of the Peninsula Eastern Group.

(End of this chapter)