By Clare Jim and Scott Murdoch Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed a deal led by U.S. firm BlackRock to buy most of the $22.8 billion ports business of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, including assets it holds along the Panama Canal.

The deal will give the U.S. consortium control of key Panama Canal ports amid White House calls to remove them from what it says is Chinese ownership. But it also risks heightening tensions between the U.S. and Panama, which have tussled over Trump’s claims about the Canal.

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“My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” Trump told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday night.

“Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals.”

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said Trump was “once again lying” in a post on X on Wednesday morning.

“The Panama Canal is not in the process of being reclaimed … the Canal is Panamanian and will continue to be Panamanian!”

The deal with the BlackRock-led consortium includes 90% of Panama Ports Company, which has operated the Balboa and Cristobal ports at each end of the canal for over two decades, said CK Hutchison.

“We are glad to see U.S. investors acquire a controlling stake in Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal at either end of the Panama Canal,” a U.S. State Department official said in a statement to Reuters.

CK Hutchison is a publicly listed Hong Kong company not financially tied to the Chinese government and other ports in Panama are operated by companies from the U.S., Taiwan and Singapore.

Trump has previously complained about the presence of Chinese and Hong Kong-based companies in Panama, and American officials and politicians have said CK Hutchison’s control of the ports represents a security risk for the operation.

In total, the consortium, which includes Terminal Investment and Global Infrastructure Partners, will control 43 ports comprising 199 berths in 23 countries, the conglomerate said.

The high purchase price sent CK Hutchison’s stock up more than 20% on Wednesday, outpacing a 2.8% rise in Hong Kong’s broader Hang Seng Index. Its price is now the highest since August 1, 2023.

The sale involves CK Hutchison’s 80% stake in Hutchison Ports with an equity value of $14.21 billion. However, the conglomerate will receive more than $19 billion following repayment of some shareholder loans.

Goldman Sachs is advising CK Hutchison on the deal, two sources with knowledge of the deal said. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

John Waldron, the president of Goldman Sachs, was among the senior bankers involved in the talks due to the high-profile nature of the transaction, a third person familiar with talks told Reuters. Bankers at Goldman in Hong Kong were also involved, the source said.

The size of the proceeds would be similar to CK Hutchison’s entire Hong Kong market value prior to Wednesday’s share rally.

The remainder of Hutchison Ports is owned by Singapore’s PSA International.

About 12,000 ships used the Panama Canal last year that connects 1,920 ports across 170 countries. Its position is strategic for the U.S. as more than three-quarters of vessels passing through originate in or are bound for the United States.

“I would like to stress that the transaction is purely commercial in nature and wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports,” CK Hutchison co-managing director Frank Sixt said in a statement.

Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee its freedoms, including freedom of speech, would be protected under a “one country, two systems” formula.

Mulino on Thursday said that Trump’s so-called “reclaiming” of the Canal had not been part of discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a recent visit or with any other U.S. official.

The U.S. controlled the Canal and the area around it until it signed treaties in 1977 granting Panama control and sovereignty over the canal zone and guaranteeing its permanent neutrality. The treaties took effect in 1999.

The U.S.’ involvement in the canal is widely considered a pain point for many Panamanians, with around two dozen protesters killed in a 1964 confrontation with Canal authorities.