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People with knowledge of the matter say that Stonepeak-owned Textainer has advanced talks to buy container leasing firm Seaco, from an arm of the failed Chinese conglomerate HNA Group.
The people said that Textainer had beaten out rival bidders to Seaco, which belongs to Bohai Leasing Co. of Shenzhen. According to people who asked to remain anonymous when discussing private information, a transaction could value Seaco around $5 billion, including debt.
The sale of Seaco will continue the push by Chinese companies in order to sell assets that they acquired during a wave foreign acquisitions a few years ago. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the tech giant, and Guo Guangchang’s conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. are also slowing down their overseas expansion to focus more on their domestic market.
Bloomberg News reported that Seaco’s owners were launching a sale in February. People with knowledge of the situation said that Bohai Leasing was also reviewing other divestments including the sale of a stake of aircraft leasing firm Avolon.
Seaco was founded in 1965 and is one of the largest container lessors in the world. It provides containers for shipping goods all over the globe. According to its website, it offers dry freight, refrigeration, specialized, and tank containers.
There are no final agreements, and it is possible that the talks could collapse or a different suitor could seal a deal. Textainer directed questions to a Stonepeak spokesperson, who declined to make any comments. Seaco’s representative did not have an immediate comment. Bohai Leasing also did not respond to an email or phone call seeking a comment outside of regular business hours.
Stonepeak, a New York-based company, specializes in infrastructure and real assets. According to its website, it had $65 billion in assets under management at the close of last year. It completed the acquisition of Textainer in March, after agreeing to purchase it for $7.4billion including debt.
Seaco was a joint venture of General Electric Capital Corp., Sea Containers Ltd. and HNA before it was bought by HNA. HNA took control of Cronos Ltd., a rival container lessor in 2015 and merged its business with Seaco.
Written by Kiel Porter and Gillian Tan