Asia/Pacific News
Royal Vopak Sells 40% Stake in Japanese Terminals
Royal Vopak N.V. (Vopak) Tuesday announced that it has sold its 40 percent stake in Nippon Vopak Co. Ltd. (Nippon Vopak) to Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund for approximately €26 million ($28.95 million) after capital gains.
Nippon Vopak owns and operates five terminals throughout Japan with a total operating capacity of 203,200 cubic metres (cbm).
"The proceeds from this transaction will be used to further strengthen Vopak's flexibility to execute its selective capital disciplined growth strategy and to support its consistent dividend policy, while maintaining a robust financial position," explained Vopak, noting that the divestment will be reported in 2016's Q2 and result in a small exceptional gain.
The divestment is said to align with the company's strategy to update its terminal portfolio criteria to better fit the changing energy and petrochemical market, which includes plans to divest about 15 primarily smaller terminals.
Indeed, this is not the first such sale in recent months.
In December, Ship & Bunker reported that Vopak had reached an agreement on two separate transactions for the sale of the company's UK assets to MACQUARIE Group Limited (Macquarie Capital) and Greenergy.
