Associated British Ports owns and operates 21

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

s in the United Kingdom, managing around 25 per cent of the UK's sea-borne trade. The company's activities cover transport, haulage and terminal operations, ship's agency, dredging and marine consultancy.

History

Ports formerly owned by rail and canal companies were nationalised in 1947 by

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

's post Second World War Labour government. The commission was split in 1962 by the

Transport Act 1962 The Transport Act 1962 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", it was passed by Haro ...

; the British Transport Docks Board (BTDB) was formed in 1962 as a government-owned body to manage various ports throughout Great Britain.Transportation Infrastructure: Associated British Ports Holdings plc.
''investing.businessweek.com''. Retrieved 23 January 2013. In 1981 the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

government of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

implemented the

Transport Act 1981 The Transport Act 1981 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Amongst other items it introduced the compulsory wearing of seat belts for front seat passengers for a trial period of three year. The major part of the act was for re-organ ...

, which provided for the BTDB's privatisation. Because of BTDB's statutory powers as a harbour operator, a straightforward conversion to limited company status was impractical. Instead, BTDB was renamed as Associated British Ports (ABP) and a limited company, Associated British Ports Holdings Ltd, was created, with the same powers in law over ABP as a holding company has over a subsidiary. In 1983 the British Government allowed the company to become a

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fr ...

quoted on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. The company was taken over by a consortium of companies in 2006 and, in August of that year, the company was de-listed from the London Stock Exchange. In 2002 ABP bought Hams Hall Distribution Park in the West Midlands from E.ON. In 2006 a consortium led by

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Ho ...

offered £2.795 billion for the company. Tugboat

From 2006 until 2015, the company was owned by a consortium consisting of GS Infrastructure Partners,

Borealis Infrastructure The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is a Canadian public pension fund, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. OMERS is a defined benefit, jointly sponsored, multi-employer public pension plan created in 1962 by Ontario provinci ...

, GIC, and Prudential. In March 2015, Anchorage Ports LLP, an investment consortium led by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and

Hermes Infrastructure Federated Hermes is an investment manager headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1955 and incorporated on October 18, 1957, the company manages $624 billion of customer assets, as of Sept. 30, 2022. The company offe ...

, acquired a 33.3% interest in the business. In addition the

Kuwait Investment Authority The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) is Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, managing the state’s reserve and the state’s future generation fund (FGF). Founded in 1953, the KIA is the world's oldest sovereign wealth fund. As of April 2022, it ...

also purchased a 10% interest in the company. As a result of these transactions the shareholdings in the group holding company as of 2015 were: 33.3% owned by Borealis Infrastructure, 33.3% by Anchorage Ports LLP, 23.3% by Cheyne Walk Investment Pte. Ltd (a nominated investment vehicle of GIC) and 10% by the Kuwait Investment Authority.

Ports

ABPH manages the following ports: *

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

Port of Barrow The Port of Barrow refers to the enclosed dock system within the town of Barrow-in-Furness, England. Morecambe Bay is to the east of the port and the Irish Sea surrounds it to the south and west. The port is currently owned and operated by ...

Barry Docks Barry Docks ( cy, Dociau'r Barri) is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. They were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alterna ...

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830s, when the principal lando ...

Port of Garston The Port of Garston, also known as Garston Docks is an enclosed tidal dock system on the River Mersey at Garston, approx 6 miles from Liverpool City centre Liverpool, England. It is operated by Associated British Ports History Garston Dock wa ...

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

Port of Grimsby The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. Sea trade out of Grimsby dates to at least the medieval period. The ''Grimsby Haven Company'' began dock development in the late 170 ...

Hams Hall Hams Hall is a place near Lea Marston in North Warwickshire, England, named after the former Hams Hall manor house. A power station at Hams Hall was constructed and operated in the late 1920s; a further two power stations began generating el ...

Port of Hull The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally con ...

Port of Immingham The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest ...

Port of Ipswich The Port of Ipswich can be dated to c.625. The name Ipswich was originally Gippeswyc, referring to the River Gyppes with a suffix derived from the Scandinavian term vik, which had evolved from meaning bay or inlet to mean landing-place, followin ...

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, nor ...

* Port of Lowestoft *

Newport Docks Newport Docks is the collective name for a group of docks in the city of Newport, south-east Wales. By the eighteenth century there were a number of wharves on the west shore of the River Usk; iron and coal were the principal outward traffic. Th ...

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

Port of Port Talbot The port of Port Talbot is located on the River Afan estuary next to Port Talbot Steelworks in the industrial town of Port Talbot, South Wales. The whole basin complex covers about , consisting of: an inner set of floating docks, developed from 1 ...

Silloth Silloth (sometimes known as Silloth-on-Solway) is a port town and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically in the county of Cumberland, the town is an example of a Victorian seaside resort in the North of Engl ...

* Port of Southampton * Port of Swansea * Teignmouth *

Troon Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with freight services and a yacht marina. Up until January 2016, P&O ope ...

References

External links

Associated British Port Holdings Ltd
{{Authority control Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Transport operators of the United Kingdom Port operating companies OMERS companies British companies established in 1981 Holding companies of the United Kingdom CPP Investment Board companies

History

Ports

See also

References

External links