Cosco 50% company ContainerCo to look at Funding Expansion

Monday 4th July 2016

ContainerCo (NZL), the container manufacturer and depot operator, has hired investment bankers Cameron Partners for advice on how to fund expansion as shipping volumes grow.

Auckland-based ContainerCo is 50 percent-owned by the New Zealand arm of COSCO, a subsidiary of shipping giant China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co.

The company says it will need extra investment to cater for a growing number of container movements, which it says is putting pressure on port facilities and stoking demand for container storage and repair depots. ContainerCo employs 150 staff at operations in Tauranga, Auckland, Napier and Christchurch, and generated $43 million in annual revenue in the 2016 financial year.

"ContainerCo’s container depot business is well-positioned to take advantage of these favourable dynamics and we believe there are also opportunities to expand our complementary hire and sales business, given the business's core expertise," managing director Ken Harris said in a statement. "Realising the company’s inherent potential as a long-term infrastructure services business will require additional investment and we have sought Cameron Partners' advice in order to assist the company to achieve its strategic ambitions."

ContainerCo was formed through the 2013 merger of NZL Group's $5.1 million container depot business with United Containers and the $787,000 purchase of CentrePort's Transport Systems 2000 hire and sales business.

The company is jointly owned by Harris's NZL Group and COSCO Shipping Lines (New Zealand).

The container depot operator handled, repaired, stored and serviced some 329,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent container units) in the year ended March 31.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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