Dubai Firm Details Plans for U.S. Ports

After weeks of political furor over maritime security, a Dubai-owned company Wednesday gave Congress what it wanted: a timetable and new details about its promise to surrender all $700 million worth of its newly acquired U.S. port operations.

Dubai Ports World, the world’s third-largest ports company, announced that it intended to sell all its U.S. businesses within four to six months to a single, unrelated American buyer.

The top executive for its U.S. subsidiary made clear that he understood the nation’s sensitivity toward foreign ownership.

“I cannot emphasize enough it is an American buyer,” Michael Seymour said.

Lawmakers who criticized the Bush administration for approving Dubai Ports World’s earlier plans to operate in the United States said they were satisfied.

“It certainly appears on its face to achieve what we want, and that’s to have a U.S. company running these ports,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “I think DP World got the message loudly and clearly.”

Still, the House voted 377-38 hours later to formally express its opposition to Dubai Ports World running any port terminals in the U.S. The vote was largely symbolic because the company already had promised to sell its U.S. operations and explained how it would do so.

“It’s important for the company to continue moving forward on what they committed to doing, and we appreciate the step that they took,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. He praised the decision by Dubai’s ruler, Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, to sell the U.S. operations to preserve good relations between the countries.

Dubai Ports World said that until a sale was finalized, its U.S. businesses would operate independently. The announcement was the first time it had described plans for the newly acquired U.S. operations as a sale and indicated that it would retain no stake.

Dubai Ports World has said those U.S. operations are worth about $700 million.

Seymour, the president of Dubai Ports World’s U.S. subsidiary, said there was “already significant interest in the sale from American buyers.”

The disclosures by Dubai Ports World responded to questions raised since its vague announcement last week that it intended to “transfer fully” to an unspecified American company the U.S. operations it acquired when it bought London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. for $6.8 billion.