Health issues have forced Lam Hing Man to resign as chief executive of Chinese container terminal operator Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust).
Lam, 64, is scheduled to stand down from the position on 25 June, the Singapore-listed company said in a recent regulatory filing.
He was made CEO of the company less than two years ago, following the retirement of predecessor Yim Lui Fai.
Before taking the reins at HPH Trust, Lam spent seven years as managing director of Yantian International Container Terminals.
Ivor Chow, who is director of corporate finance, treasury and risk management of Hutchison Ports, will take over as HPH Trust’s new chief executive.
The 51-year-old Hong Kong resident was previously chief financial officer and investor relations officer at HPH Trust between February 2011 and April 2016.
HPH Trust owns interests in deepwater container port assets in two of the world’s busiest container port cities by throughput — Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China.
Guangdong Province
Other assets in the HPH Trust portfolio include the port in Huizhou, China, as well as certain port ancillary services and the economic benefits of river ports complementary to the ports it operates.
HPH Trust’s investment mandate is principally to invest in, develop, operate and manage deepwater container ports in the Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau.
In February, HPH Trust reported a strong performance for the second half of 2020, boosted by higher volumes of outbound cargoes to the US and Europe. US-bound cargoes rose 24% compared to the same period of 2019, and volume to Europe jumped 18%. This helped net profit for the full year surge 57% to HKD 831m ($107m).
The company was recently successful in tapping fixed-income investors for $500m via a five-year bond issue, which has a coupon of 2%.
HPH Trust’s $5.5bn initial public offering in 2011 is still the largest to date in Singapore.
The company’s key shareholders comprise Hutchison Ports, with a 27.6% stake, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, which has a 14% stake.
The outfit recently announced that it was forming a joint venture with Shenzhen Yantian Port Group to develop a new container terminal in Shenzhen.
HPH Trust said Yantian International Container Terminals in Shenzhen has become one of the busiest container terminals in China.
The company said it was of the view that it should continue to strengthen its infrastructure at the facility to serve the new generation of mega-vessels and maintain the ports competitiveness.
