Forth Ports’ £95m to take control of container group

Forth Ports has paid £95 million to acquire full ownership of Tilbury Container Services (TCS) in the south of England.

Through its owner, Otter Port Holdings, it has bought out DP World and Associated British Ports who together owned 67 per cent. The three companies have been joint shareholders since 1998.

TCS is located on the River Thames within the Port of Tilbury, which is wholly owned by Forth Ports and is considered a key shipping and distribution centre for the region.

Charles Hammond, Forth’s chief executive, described it as an “important acquisition” that would bring further benefits to its customers.

TCS last year handled about 314,000 containers, up 2.4 per cent on the previous year, and has secured a significant trading position with South Africa and South America. It has strong links with a number of other deep sea trades.

The Port of Tilbury also runs a short sea business which handled about 126,000 containers in last year, a rise of 7.6 per cent on 2010. The short sea business provides regular links to Europe and to other UK coastal feeder locations.

“This is an important acquisition and a major step forward in our plans to grow and develop our ports business,” said Hammond. “We believe that stronger links between our container and distribution customers will provide benefits in the supply chain for them and further underpins our portcentric strategy.

“With 100 per cent ownership of TCS, we plan to combine our existing short sea container terminal with TCS to create a new container business branded ‘London Container Terminal’. The combined terminal will handle close to half a million containers and makes us the third-largest single container operation in the UK. This further underlines Tilbury’s role as a distribution and transhipment hub for London.”