Associated British Ports (ABP) owns and operates 21

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

s in the United Kingdom, managing around 25 per cent of the UK's sea-borne trade. The company's activities cover transport, haulage and terminal operations, ship's agency,

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

and marine consultancy.

History

Ports formerly owned by rail and canal companies were nationalised in 1947 by

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

's post Second World War

Attlee government Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the first Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom on 26 July 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as prime minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 19 ...

, forming part of the operations of the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the s ...

. The commission was split in 1962 by the

Transport Act 1962 The Transport Act 1962 ( 10 & 11 Eliz. 2. c. 46) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act ...

; the

British Transport Docks Board The British Transport Docks Board (BTDB) was a nationalised industry, managing former railway-owned docks in Great Britain. It was created by the Transport Act 1962 and abolished by the Transport Act 1981, which provided for its privatisatio ...

(BTDB) was formed in 1962 as a government-owned body to manage various ports throughout

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

.Transportation Infrastructure: Associated British Ports Holdings plc.
''investing.businessweek.com''. Retrieved 23 January 2013. In 1981 the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

government of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

implemented the

Transport Act 1981 The Transport Act 1981 (c. 56) was an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Amongst other items it introduced the compulsory wearing of seat belts for front seat passengers for a trial period of three years. The major part of the act was ...

, which provided for the BTDB's privatisation. Because of BTDB's statutory powers as a harbour operator, a straightforward conversion to limited company status was impractical. Instead, BTDB was renamed as Associated British Ports (ABP) and a limited company, Associated British Ports Holdings Ltd. (ABPH), was created, with the same powers in law over ABP as a holding company has over a subsidiary. In 1983 the British Government allowed the company to become a

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...

quoted on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

. The company was taken over by a consortium of companies in 2006 and, in August of that year, the company was

delisted In corporate finance, a listing refers to the company's shares being on the list (or board) of stock that are publicly listed. Some stock exchanges allow shares of a foreign company to be listed and may allow dual listing, subject to conditions. ...

from the London Stock Exchange. In 2002 ABP bought Hams Hall Distribution Park in the West Midlands from

E.ON E.ON SE is a European multinational electric utility company based in Essen, Germany. It operates as one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers. The name originates from the Latin word '' aeon'', derived from ...

. In 2006 a consortium led by

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

offered £2.795 billion for the company. From 2006 until 2015, the company was owned by a consortium consisting of GS Infrastructure Partners,

Borealis Infrastructure The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is a Canadian public pension fund, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. OMERS is a defined benefit, jointly sponsored, multi-employer public pension plan created in 1962 by Ontario provinci ...

GIC GIC may refer to: Education * Ghana Insurance College, in Accra, Ghana * Government Intermediate College, a type of school in India * Grait International College in Nigeria * Gyosei International College in the U.K., defunct Finance * General ...

and Prudential. In March 2015, Anchorage Ports, an investment consortium led by the

CPP Investments The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB; ), operating as CPP Investments (), is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of the 1997 ''Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act'' to oversee and invest the funds contributed to and h ...

and Hermes Infrastructure, acquired a 33% interest in the business. The

Kuwait Investment Authority The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) is the State owned sovereign wealth fund of the State of Kuwait, managing the state's reserve and the state's future generation fund, also known as "Ajyal Fund". Founded in 1953, the KIA is the world's old ...

purchased a 10% interest in the company. As a result of these transactions the shareholdings in the group holding company as of 2015 were: Borealis Infrastructure (33%), Anchorage Ports (33%), Cheyne GIC (23%) and the Kuwait Investment Authority (10%).

Ports

ABPH manages the following ports: *

Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...

Port of Barrow The Royal Port of Barrow refers to the enclosed dock system within the town of Barrow-in-Furness, England. Morecambe Bay is to the east of the port and the Irish Sea surrounds it to the south and west. The port is currently owned and operated ...

Barry Docks Barry Docks () is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. The docks were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alternative to the co ...

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

Port of Garston The Port of Garston, also known as Garston Docks is an enclosed tidal dock system on the River Mersey at Garston, approximately from Liverpool City centre Liverpool, England. It is operated by Associated British Ports who are the Harbour Aut ...

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...

Port of Grimsby The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. Sea trade out of Grimsby dates to at least the medieval period. The ''Grimsby Haven Company'' began dock development in the late 1700 ...

Hams Hall Hams Hall is a place near Lea Marston in North Warwickshire, England, named after the former Hams Hall manor house. A power station at Hams Hall was constructed and operated in the late 1920s; a further two power stations began generating elect ...

Port of Hull The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally con ...

Port of Immingham The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest p ...

Port of Ipswich The Port of Ipswich can be dated to c.625. The name Ipswich was originally Gippeswyc, referring to the River Gipping, River Gyppes with a suffix derived from the Scandinavian term vik, which had evolved from meaning bay or inlet to mean landing-p ...

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

Port of Lowestoft The Port of Lowestoft is a harbour and commercial port in Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk owned by Associated British Ports. It is the most easterly harbour in the United Kingdom and has direct sea access to the North Sea. The harbou ...

Newport Docks Newport Docks is the collective name for a group of docks in the city of Newport, south-east Wales. By the eighteenth century there were a number of wharves on the west shore of the River Usk; iron and coal were the principal outward traffic. Th ...

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Port of Port Talbot The Port of Port Talbot is located on the River Afan estuary next to Port Talbot Steelworks in the industrial town of Port Talbot, South Wales. The whole basin complex covers about , consisting of: an inner set of floating docks, developed from 1 ...

Silloth Silloth, or Silloth-on-Solway, is a port town and civil parish in the Cumberland (district), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town stands on the coast of the Solway Firth, west of Carlisle. It was developed from the 1850s onwards a ...

Port of Southampton The Port of Southampton is a passenger and cargo port in the central part of the south coast of England. The modern era in the history of the Port of Southampton began when the first dock was inaugurated in 1843. After the Port of Felixstowe, ...

* Port of Swansea *

Teignmouth Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14 ...

Troon Troon (Scottish Gaelic: ''An Truthail'') is a town and sea port in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about north of Ayr and northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Troon has a port with ferry and freight serv ...

Other port operators in the UK include: *

Peel Ports The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Greater Manchester, Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes ...

(operate

Mersey Docks and Harbour Company The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool, on the River Mersey, England. These include the operation of the enclosed north ...

and Port Salford) * P&O *

PD Ports PD Ports is a Middlesbrough, England headquartered port, shipping and logistics company; owner of Teesport, and ports at Hartlepool, Howden and Keadby; with additional operations at the Port of Felixstowe, Felixstowe, Port of Immingham, Immingha ...

Forth Ports Forth Ports Limited is a port operator in the United Kingdom based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is owned by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. History Fort Ports was established on 15th December 1967 as the Forth Ports Authority. It bec ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Transport operators of the United Kingdom Port operating companies OMERS companies British companies established in 1981 Holding companies of the United Kingdom CPP Investment Board companies