Yildrum the Interview from Lloyd's List
Little known in shipping circles until he came to CMA CGM's rescue in 2011, Robert Yildirim has become a force to be reckoned with in the container terminals industry. A plain speaker who is not afraid to vent his anger in public, Mr Yildirim has made it clear he is very upset about the way the Long Beach Container Terminal sale was handled, and how unfairly he thinks he was treated
ROBERT Yildirim is one of a rare breed in the world of shipping, someone who is not only prepared to speak his mind, but also let his feelings be known.
In an increasingly corporatised industry where chief executives choose their words with care and try not to stray far from the party line, Mr Yildirim is refreshingly frank and open about his business dealings.
It helps, of course, to be the boss of a private family-owned group, but even so, many others in a similar position to Mr Yildirim prefer to stay away from the limelight, and would certainly never dream of discussing a transaction that had gone wrong.
But the head of the Yildirim Group of Companies was so incensed about what happened during the final stages of the Long Beach Container Terminal sale last month that he decided to vent his anger in public.
“I was screwed,” he told Lloyd’s List as he detailed how he had been led to believe he had won the bid for the LBCT concession.
Having thought he was on the verge of clinching an acquisition that had the potential to transform Yildirim’s Yilport subsidiary, he ended up with zero, and at a considerable cost.
Mr Yildirim is not planning to seek compensation through legal action, but he certainly expects recompense in some other form from business partners who, he believes, let him down. He mentions as an example more volumes through Yilport terminals.
So what happened exactly?
Yilport submitted a bid for Long Beach Container Terminal fairly late in the process, offering $1.76bn for the automated facility and setting out ways in which the Turkish company thought it could make the terminal even more productive and efficient.
The sellers and others with a role in the disposal process were impressed by the offer, Lloyd’s List was told by those closely associated in the transaction, and the Yilport tender was shortlisted, along with four others. Seaspan subsequently dropped out, and eventually there were just two names left in the ring, Yilport and Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure.
Keen to buy LBCT and consolidate Yilport’s position as one of the world’s leading container terminal operators, Mr Yildirim lobbied hard.....MUCH MORE
He met members of the powerful Committee for Foreign Investment in the US to convince them he was a committed long-term investor and that his Turkish nationality posed no risk, especially given his group’s existing US interests and strong family ties to the US. His children are American citizens.
He also addressed Long Beach executive director Mario Cordero and port commissioners, who had asked for additional time to vet the two bids; was in direct contact with OOIL co-chief executive Andy Tung; and spoke to the JP Morgan team which was handling the sale. Finally, he talked to Macquarie since, at the time, Mr Yildirim was interested in buying three North Amercian port facilities that the Australian fund manager wanted to sell.
Piecing all the feedback together, Mr Yildirim was so certain he had won the LBCT concession that he pulled out of talks to buy the Macquarie terminals, as he could not afford both deals, which would have added up to $3bn.
“Everyone assured me, even JP Morgan, that my offer was similar to Macquarie’s, but that I was ahead,” says Mr Yildirim.
“Robert, you can get this,” he was told by those closely involved with the sales process.
It was Mr Tung who broke the news that OOIL’s new owner, Cosco Shipping, had decided at the last minute to accept the Macquarie offer.....
