Hutchison Port Trust Units Fall in Singapore Trading Debut

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Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, having raised $5.5 billion in this year’s largest initial public offering, dropped as much as 6.4 percent from the IPO price, which was set before an earthquake in Japan roiled Asian markets.

Units of the container-terminal owner traded as low as 94.5 U.S. cents, and stood at 95 cents as of 2:44 p.m. in Singapore today. The trust, which holds assets from Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (13), priced units in the IPO at $1.01.

Asian equities have tumbled this week, sending the MSCI Asia Pacific Index toward its biggest weekly decline since May, because of concerns that electricity shortages and radiation leaks from a nuclear-power plant crippled by the quake may disrupt production in Japan.

“Considering the situation, I think it’s excellent,” trust Chairman Canning Fok said about the stock reaction at the listing ceremony in Singapore today. He said the earthquake’s “impact is minimal” on the trust’s assets.

The trust, which owns terminals in Hong Kong and neighboring Shenzhen, sold about 5.4 billion units in the IPO. The price range was initially set at 91 cents to $1.08 before being narrowed to 99 cents to $1.03, according to term sheets.

The trust’s terminals handled a record 21.2 million 20-foot containers last year, 17 percent more than in 2009. The trust has room to develop 12 more berths in Shenzhen’s deepwater Yantian port, with the first three expected to be completed by 2015, Ivor Chow, chief financial officer of the trust’s manager, said at a Singapore press briefing last week.

World’s Busiest

Hong Kong and Shenzhen, in China’s Pearl River Delta, form the world’s busiest container market, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa said in a Jan. 18 statement. Hutchison Whampoa, controlled by billionaire Li, kept about 25 percent of the trust and will manage it.

Hutchison Whampoa rose 1.1 percent to HK$85.7 at 2:44 p.m. in Hong Kong. It’s dropped 7.7 percent since March 10, the last day of trading before the temblor. The company, the world’s largest container-terminal operator, also invests in drugstores, real estate and mobile-phone services.

Laura Cheung, a Hutchison Whampoa spokeswoman, wasn’t immediately available to comment. DBS Group Holdings Ltd. (DBS), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) managed the trust’s sale.

Cornerstone investors led by Capital Research & Management Co. and Paulson & Co. invested $1.62 billion in the IPO, according to the prospectus filed with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state investment company, was among the cornerstone investors.