Hutchison Whampoa's disposal of prime terminal assets at Kwai Chung should bolster its bottom line, but will also dampen any competitive urges awakened by the recent injection of new blood into Hong Kong's tight-knit group of port operators.
PSA Corp and Hutchison - by far the world's two biggest terminal owners - may seem strange bedfellows, but the combined effect of inflated terminal asset prices, a deteriorating operating outlook for Hong Kong port and the Singapore firm's ambitious expansion mandate made Hongkong International Terminals a tradable asset.
The joker in the pack is Hutchison's need to generate one-off gains to maintain bottom-line growth despite mounting third-generation telecommunications losses.
Selling an asset once considered a crown jewel will have been made easier by the fact that Hong Kong's status as the world's pre-eminent container port is threatened by Guangdong-based operators - the Hutchison and Wharf Group duopoly among them - that are increasingly capturing the gargantuan export volumes flowing from south China's factories.
In 2000, Kwai Chung operators handled 78 per cent of the 13.29 million 20-foot containers of manufactured goods that moved directly through south China. By last year, the proportion had dropped to half of the 26.6 million boxes of direct trade; this year, they will be lucky to see 45 per cent.
Such trends have resulted in allegations that vested corporate interests are taking precedence over Hong Kong's wider interests, given the absence of a clear strategy to arrest the decline in market share.