Overseas sub-Hong Kong group shares in Belgian wharf company

Yesterday, the Hong Kong Group (600018) and APM terminals in Shanghai jointly celebrated the arrival of the Hong Kong group as a shareholder of the Zeebrugge company of the Belgian APM Pier, with both sides unveiling the joint venture.　　The success of the Hong Kong group's acquisition of a 25% per cent stake in the Zeebrugge Wharf Corporation to the Maersk Group as the second largest shareholder of the wharf company marks the first substantial step forward for the Hong Kong group to go overseas. Zeebrugge is located in Belgium, one of 4 deepwater ports on the North Sea coast of continental Europe, began operation in 2006, is Europe's largest gas transshipment port and liquefied gas import port, but also the sixth largest container port in Europe.　　Zeebrugge Wharf Company for the Port of Zeebrugge, one of the container terminals, the terminal water depth of 15.2 meters, shoreline length of 900 meters, yard area of 450,000 square meters, equipped with 7 Super Panamanian Bridge Crane, design capacity of 850,000 teu/years. The Hong Kong group said that the completion of the project of the Belgian Zeebrugge terminals marked the beginning of a substantive first step in the internationalization strategy of one of the company's three major strategies, and one of the important measures taken by the Hong Kong group to find a way to change its development. In the project, the Hong Kong group acquired a 25% per cent stake in the Zeebrugge Wharf company to the Maersk Group and became the second largest shareholder of the wharf company.　　The Hong Kong Group will participate in the day-to-day operation of the terminal company by providing some senior management staff, including deputy general manager. APM Terminals is an independent terminal operator of the Danish A.P Muller-Maersk Group. APM Terminals holds a 75% per cent stake in the Zeebrugge Dock Company. APM Wharf is the world's leading container terminal company, its global terminal network consists of more than 50 terminals, employs more than 18,000 people, distributed in 34 countries around the world. APM Terminals and the Hong Kong Group of cooperation can be traced back to December 2003, the two sides signed the Shanghai-East container terminal investment contract. The 1250-meter-east Shanghai Container Terminal is located in Waigaoqiao area along the south bank of the Yangtze River, its throughput in the first year of operation reached 1 million standard container records. By December 2005, the cooperation between APM Pier and the port group was further extended to the Yangshan two project, with three other partners signing the cooperative investment contract.