APM Terminals to Sell Container Terminal in Virginia

Port operator APM Terminals, a unit of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, said it would sell a big U.S. container terminal to infrastructure investor Alinda Capital Partners and a British private pension fund.

The companies, in a joint statement on Tuesday, did not disclose the price that Alinda and Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited will pay for APM Terminals Virginia, the deep-water terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The terminal, which APM describes on its website as the largest privately owned terminal in North America, was commissioned in 2007 at a cost of $540 million and later leased to the Virginia Port Authority.

"Ownership of this terminal does not fit with our global strategy and ambition to operate and develop ports," APM Chief Financial Officer Christian Moller Laursen said in the statement. "We have chosen to sell our Portsmouth terminal because we are a non-operating lessor."

Lloyd's List, citing a source familiar with the deal, said the buyers planned to raise $450 million through a private placement of a bond later this week to help fund the deal.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, and staff at the facility will not be affected, the statement said.

APM Terminals operates 65 port and terminal facilities in 39 countries.

Its chief executive, Kim Fejfer, said last year it was investing in fast-growing regions such as Russia and Africa to compensate for a lack of growth in mature markets.

(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Jane Baird)