This Li Ka-shing-backed entity operates deepwater container ports in Yantian in Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Proportionately, Yantian is the increasingly major contributor to volume, with 15 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) versus Hong Kong’s 7 million TEUs.
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust), which owns container terminals in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, has maintained a resilient profile even as the US-initiated trade war has changed shipping patterns. At present, with the growing importance of Shenzhen as one of China’s key ports, Gilbert Lopez and Hanel Tan of Macquarie Equity Research have initiated coverage of HPH Trust with an “outperform” call and 29 US cents (37 cents) target price, with a distribution yield of around 9%.
Despite this optimism, HPH Trust’s unit price is now a far cry from its IPO price of US$1.01 in March 2011, just when markets were reeling from the tsunami-triggered nuclear accident in Japan. Nonetheless, having sunk to as low as 9 US cents in March 2020, HPH Trust’s unit price has recovered somewhat, trading just above 20 US cents this year.
