Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to acquire US$2.4bn marine container terminal

Date: Monday, November 27, 2006
Author: AltAssets.com

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has agreed to acquire four marine container terminals in North America from Orient Overseas (International) of Hong Kong for US$2.4bn. The assets will be held within the pension plan's infrastructure and timber portfolio.

The operations include New York Container Terminal, Staten Island, New York; Global Terminal and Container Systems, Bayonne, New Jersey; and TSI Terminal Systems' Deltaport and Vanterm facilities in Delta and Vancouver, British Columbia. Combined annual sales of the operations total approximately US$500m.

'This acquisition represents solid, robust assets, has little vulnerability to market or economic vagaries, and features a very attractive growth profile that we will support and will serve us well into the future,' said Jim Leech, senior vice president, Teachers' Private Capital, the private investment arm of the pension plan. 'It is well priced from an investment value perspective and offers the long-term cash flow we look for as a pension plan. We are thrilled to welcome these assets into our portfolio and are keenly focused on continuing to invest in and expand the terminals.'

Ontario Teachers' infrastructure portfolio also includes assets such as Express Pipeline System (petroleum export pipeline), Scotia Gas Networks (gas distribution), InterGen (power generation), and Northumbrian Water Group (water supply and wastewater services).

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is an independent corporation responsible for investing the US$84bn fund and administering the pensions of Ontario's 163,000 elementary and secondary school teachers and 101,000 retired teachers. The combined value of the plan's infrastructure and timber, and private equity assets is approximately US$12bn.