Blackstone invests in SSA Marine parent Carrix

   Carrix, the parent company of SSA Marine (formerly known as Stevedoring Services of America) said Sunday that funds affiliated with Blackstone Infrastructure Partners (BIP) will make what it called “a growth-oriented investment” in the company. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of April, were not made public.
   Just last week JAXPORT signed a deal to lease the Jacksonville International Gateway Terminal at Blount Island to SSA Marine for 25 years and in February the staff of the Northwest Seaport Alliance recommended an investment of $340 million in Terminal 5 in Seattle as well as a new, 32-year lease for the terminal with SSA Marine and the Terminal International Limited subsidiary of Mediterranean Shipping Company.
   The founding Smith/Hemingway family will continue to be the majority owners of Seattle-based Carrix. BIP joins Mexican businessman Fernando Chico as an investor in Carrix. Chico became a part owner of Carrix in 2014 shortly after Goldman Sachs sold its interest in Carrix back to the Smith/Hemingway family.
   Carrix says SSA Marine and its related affiliates have combined operations at more than 250 port and rail locations worldwide, including  16 container terminals in Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma in the United States, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Vietnam.
   “We are pleased that BIP has invested in Carrix and will be working with us to continue our ongoing growth and development,” said Jon Hemingway (pictured), chairman of Carrix. “Along with its affiliates, BIP brings an amazing network of highly skilled and experienced people, global relationships, expertise in a diverse array of businesses and myriad capabilities to apply. When combined with our experience in the port industry and infrastructure development, we have substantially broadened what our shareholders and directors can do to support Carrix and its management team.”
   In recent years, SSA Marine has expanded in the Port of Oakland in California. It also is an investor in a new terminal being developed in Anaklia, Georgia, on the Black Sea and an investor in the Melford Atlantic Gateway, a proposed 315-acre marine container terminal to be constructed at the Strait of Canso, Nova Scotia.