P&0: No storm over these ports

PSA has rightly surrendered in the £3.9bn battle for P&O. The port operator, owned by the city-state’s government, has decided not to top Dubai Port World’s 520p per share offer. That certainly makes financial sense. It was PSA’s earlier 470p per share offer that was hard to understand. Ports may be hard to build and global shipping may be growing, but that does not justify paying any price. The PSA bid was 30 times consensus 2006 earnings, according to JCF Financial. And the meagre initial retu...