Paul Y-ITC eyes PetroChina as port tenant
(China Daily/HK Edition)
Updated: 2005-09-09 13:52

Construction company turned Chinese port investor Paul Y-ITC Construction Holdings Ltd said yesterday it is in talks to secure PetroChina Co Ltd as its anchor tenant or partner in its Yangkou Port project, on the coast of East China's Jiangsu Province.

The Yangkou project, which is being developed by a joint venture between Paul Y and the local Nantong government, includes 42 square kilometres of reclaimed land for a new town, industrial parks, logistics facilities, a nine-berth man-made island and a bridge linking the island to the shore.

"We are in talks with PetroChina. They will occupy one berth and build a tank farm on the man-made island," Paul Y-ITC's Deputy Chairman Tom Lau told Reuters in an interview.

Beijing has given initial approval to state-owned PetroChina to build an liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the port and the oil major plans to build facilities with an annual capacity of 3.5 million tons in the first phase.

Yangkou will be ready for operation in 2008 and Paul Y-ITC will sell and lease land on the reclaimed area before the berths come on stream.

"My business is to develop land and basic infrastructure necessary to enable dedicated berth operators to operate," Lau said

Paul Y-ITC hopes to attract oil, petrochemical and steel firms and other coal, mineral and chemical users to the Yangkou Port, which is 54 per cent owned by Paul Y-ITC and 46 per cent by the Nantong government.

The development cost for Yangkou Port is estimated at HK$4.6 billion (US$590 million), about half of which will be funded by debt in China. Paul Y-ITC has an option to lift its stake to 75 per cent, Lau said.

Paul Y-ITC has won shareholders' approval to change its name to PYI Corp to show its new strategy of focusing on bulk cargo port investment.

Its shares rose nearly 5 per cent yesterday morning to HK$1.48 but have fallen about 26 per cent in the past three months after it distributed a special dividend of HK$0.70 each in July.

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