Months after President Donald Trump had been hammering Panama over  its most valuable asset, the Panama Canal, an investment group led by BlackRock, a giant American asset manager, has agreed to buy two ports in the place owned by a Hong Kong company.

BlackRock will buy the ports, which sit at either end of the canal, and over 40 others from the Hong Kong conglomerate, CK Hutchison, for about $23 billion. Though Trump has other complaints about the canal, he said it charges too much.

President José Raúl Mulino of Panama appeared to downplay the geopolitical implications of the proposed acquisition, describing the deal in a social media post as “a global transaction, between private companies, motivated by mutual interests.”

Adebayo Ogunlesi, Founding Partner, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a subsidiary of BlackRock, will lead the move to acquire the key port operations near the Panama Canal in the deal.

As part of the agreement, GIP will manage the newly acquired assets in partnership with Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) and other strategic partners.

Under Ogunlesi’s leadership, GIP has grown into the world’s largest independent infrastructure manager, overseeing more than $100 billion in assets. The firm’s infrastructure equity funds alone account for $60 billion of its portfolio, reinforcing its position as a global leader in infrastructure investment

For BlackRock, it’s the latest sign of its desire to expand beyond what it has historically been known for — managing trillions of dollars for everyday investors in stock and bond funds. BlackRock is buying the ports through GIP, an investment firm it bought last year for almost $13 billion that owns and operates many ports, airports and data centres.

Source: Thisdaylive