Glenn Marine eyes Bursa listing

PETALING JAYA: Glenn Marine Group Malaysia is mulling over the idea of listing its cargo terminal subsidiary that largely handles cruise ship operations.

Chief executive officer Brian Paul said the plan to list on the country's stock exchange was still at a preliminary stage but it coincided with the group's plan to build a cargo terminal in Port Klang.

The company is slated to be the third cargo terminal operator in Port Klang alongside Northport and Westports.

“We have re-submitted the terminal concession proposal to the Government. And the details of the planned initial public offering (IPO) will very much depend on this concession approval,” he told StarBiz yesterday.

The company had already submitted a proposal to the Government to develop a container port with a 1.5km wharf at Port Klang Cruise Centre (PKCC) in Pulau Indah.

The development cost of the terminal is expected to be RM1.5bil.

The major shareholder of the group is Leonard Glenn Francis.

It was reported that the group would place the project under a special purpose vehicle, Centralports International Sdn Bhd.

Glenn Marine had previously said it planned to take advantage of its land with a good seafront, natural depth waters and location to develop a port with annual capacity of 3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Port Klang's future annual capacity, including all the expansion in hand, was expected to only grow to around 16.5 million TEUs in less than five years, the company said.

It added that with total handling volume of 9.5 million TEUs last year and the average trend of 10% annual container growth, the capacity would be quite saturated in five years and this was only a base-case projection.

Thus, a third container terminal will put the country at an advantage with the extra capacity to support import and export activities.

Glenn Marine is a holding company with subsidiaries that manage its two main businesses of marine logistics and cruise terminals. It also owns and manages the PKCC that is effectively the cruise terminal for Kuala Lumpur.

It is a port of call for many major cruise lines including Cunard Lines, Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises and Star Cruises among others. PKCC is often included in World Cruise itineraries, including that of the Crystal Serenity, Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth.