CK Hutchison Holdings, the Hong Kong-based group that also operates in the port sector through Hutchison Ports, of which it owns 80% of the capital, rejected the conclusions of the investigation conducted by the Contraloría General de la República de Panamá on the Panama Ports Company (PPC), the company that manages the Panamanian ports of Cristóbal and Balboa and whose 90% of the share capital is owned by Hutchison Ports. The investigation would have ascertained the violation by PPC part of the terms of the concession agreement, with hundreds of of millions of dollars that would not have ended up in the coffers of the Panamanian State ( of 8 April 2025).

Today CK Hutchison, through a note from Panama Ports Company, recalled that, on the basis of the addendum to the concession voluntarily entered into in 2005 by the PPC and the Panamanian state, compliant with all legal requirements and approved by Panamanian Law No. 55 of 2005, Panama Ports Company has committed to investing more than one billion balboa (one billion dollars) and make an additional payment of 102 million Balboa for the infrastructure inherited at the time of hiring concession of the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal in 1997. Panama Ports Company has highlighted that it has carried out significant investments that exceed 1.69 billion balboa, exceeding not only only the $50 million required by the concession contract original, but also the billion dollars agreed in the addendum, As confirmed in 2020 - the company underlined - by the Comptroller General of the Republic of Panama after a thorough verification lasted about four months.

"Therefore," specified Panama Ports Company any statement as to how much PPC would have to pay According to the concession contract signed in 1997, it must take into account account of the relevant addendum, validly entered into and approved for law. Expressing the opposite, as unfortunately happened, does not only distorts the reality of the legal relationship existing between PPC and the State under the concession contract and its addendum, but also contradicts the acts of the State itself in the course of the of the years. To state, therefore, that PPC has not paid approximately 1,200 million balboa to the Panamanian state is absolutely contrary to reality".

Recalling that "PPC is the only company port of Panama in which the State is a shareholder with a of 10%", Panama Ports Company highlighted that "in the In the last 28 years, PPC has paid the Panamanian State the sum of 126 million balboa in dividends. Consequently, the State receives such dividends only from PPC and not from other port operators. All tax exemptions granted to PPC under the concession, approved by Law 5 of 16 January 1997 and by the related attachments - the company also specified - are exactly the same tax exemptions granted to all others port operators of Panama". 'During the duration of the concession - the note remarks - PPC paid the State 668 Millions of dollars in Balboa, far exceeding the contributions of any other Panamanian port operator. According to the Comptroller General of the Republic, PPC has contributed to the national economy with over 5,900 million dollars in Balboa, through added value, indirect effects, payments to the State and the investments made". In addition, 'PPC Met payments for container handling requested by the Panama Maritime Authority, to the same tariff applicable to all port operators. In no way PPC failed to comply with the corresponding payments to the tariffs applicable to Panamanian port operators for the container handling".

"We believe firmly - concludes the note - that respect for the certainty of the law offers companies and investors the certainty that Panama is a safe country to invest in."