Changjiang Hutchison Industrial Co., Ltd. (00001.HK) issued a strategic restructuring announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on the 4th night, announcing that it has reached an agreement in principle with a consortium led by BlackRock to sell its core assets in the global port business, including interests in two ports in Panama. The consortium members include BlackRock and its Global Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GIP) and Mediterranean Shipping's Terminal Investment Company (TiL). According to the announcement, Changhe intends to sell to the consortium all the shares held by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPHS) and Hutchison Port Group Holdings (HPGHL), which together control 80% of the global interests of Hutchison Port Group. The underlying assets cover 43 ports in 23 countries in Asia, Europe and America, covering 199 berths and supporting core resources such as intelligent terminal management systems and global logistics networks. Chang He particularly stressed that it will retain China's Hong Kong, Shenzhen and mainland port assets, including strategic assets such as Yantian International and Hong Kong International Container Terminal. Founded by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Hutchison Whampoa is a sprawling business empire. Its subsidiary, Hutchison Ports PPC (also known as the Panama Ports Company, PPC), has been operating key ports on both ends of the Panama Canal - Cristobal on the Atlantic side and Balboa on the Pacific side - since 1997. PPC was initially granted a 25-year concession, with a 25-year contract renewal in 2021.