Ontario teachers, CenterPoint team up on Va. Offer
Those teachers in Ontario really like the port business.
CenterPoint Properties Trust, the Chicago-area warehouse and terminal company that has proposed privatizing operation of Virginia Ports Authority terminals, said it has added GCT Global Container Terminals as a “new member to our team.”
GCT is a subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, which has already invested in four U.S. container terminals, two in Vancouver and two in the port of New York. CenterPoint is owned by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers).
CenterPoint made a bid in March to take over VPA's three marine terminals in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News, as well as an inland intermodal terminal in Front Royal, Va., for 60 years. It also would acquire the right to develop a new container terminal at Craney Island, the port’s dredge spoil disposal site.
It made the unsolicited bid under the Virginia Public Private Transportation Act of 1995.
Last week, two other companies, the Carlyle Group and a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and Carrix (the parent company of Stevedoring Services of America) made competing offers to CenterPoint's, but details on their plans have not been made public.
“We are advising the VPA of this because we think it strengthens our team and makes our proposal even more competitive,” said in an Aug. 3 letter from CenterPoint President Paul Fisher.
The letter is available here.