Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s transport security arm said it had no concerns about the takeover by a Dubai company of terminal operations in the UK after U.S. lawmakers said the same $6.8 billion (3.9 billion-pound) deal posed a threat to security at U.S. ports.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport’s security
division, TRANSEC, said on Friday that Dubai Ports World’s
takeover of P&O’s
P&O shareholders this week voted in favour of the bid by Dubai Ports to take over P&O, ending 165 years of UK ownership to create the world’s third-largest ports operator.
A number of U.S. lawmakers have urged the U.S. government to urgently review the security implications of the multi-billion dollar bid that would change control of six U.S. ports, citing terrorism concerns.
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"It’s immaterial who owns anything here as long as the ports themselves meet the security requirements. And if they don’t meet them, then we have power to do something about it," the TRANSEC spokesman said.
He said there was no "issue of principle" involved in giving the United Arab Emirates-backed firm management control over important container terminals.
In an editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said that allowing control to pass to a UAE-backed firm "was a step in the wrong direction" by an administration that had already done far too little to protect the nation’s ports.
The deal has already been given regulatory clearance on a number of fronts, including national security, by the White House.
