A consortium led by the U.S. asset management firm BlackRock will gain control of two major ports on the Panama Canal, following a deal with the Hong Kong-based conglomerate.
This transaction, described by Donald Trump as a significant foreign policy win for his administration, comes after the U.S. president’s threats to “take back” the canal. Trump made these claims without evidence, alleging that China had excessive influence over the region.
The agreement, valued at nearly $23 billion (€21.5bn), will see the BlackRock consortium oversee 43 ports across 23 countries, including the key Panama Canal ports of Balboa and Cristóbal. Other ports in locations like Australia, Egypt, the Netherlands, and Mexico are also part of the deal. Notably, the sale does not include any ports in China or Hong Kong.
Trump celebrated the deal during a speech to Congress, stating, “My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it.”
In recent months, the U.S. president and his allies have voiced concerns about China’s growing influence in Panama. Without providing evidence, Republican Senator Ted Cruz claimed in January that the Panama ports, operated by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holding, “give China ready observation posts.”
In early February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama, cautioning Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino that his country needed to reduce Chinese involvement in the canal. Although Mulino rejected the U.S. assertions about China’s influence, his government soon announced its withdrawal from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which funds global infrastructure projects.
Frank Sixt, co-managing director of CK Hutchison, emphasized that the sale was not politically motivated. “The sale was the result of a rapid, discrete but competitive process in which numerous bids and expressions of interest were received,” he said. “I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,” Sixt added.
The BlackRock consortium also includes Swiss company Terminal Investment Limited.
