DPW sells U.S. port operations
The last chapter of the Dubai Ports World (DPW) brouhaha unfolded earlier today, with DPW announcing the sale of their American port assets to an investment arm of the insurance company AIG. While there were undoubtedly concerns with the initial deal that the federal government struck with DPW in the initial CFIUS review of their purchase of P&O Ports (see my initial concerns here), these issues were manageable, and the political melee in February and March following this announcement inappropriately vilified the company. And since that time, DPW has proven its mettle as a world leader in port and supply chain security, becoming the first company in the world certified to meet the ISO 28000 supply chain security standards and just this week earning praise from a Democratic Congressional delegation examining their operations in the Dominican Republic. While this story had a silver lining - a new political focus on port security that led to the passage of the SAFE Port Act - it was also ultimately unfair to DPW, a reality that can’t be reversed, but one that hopefully will lead to more sober responses the next time that a story like this appears on the political radar.
