the connection to it all - Carlyle Group involved in port security deal

[NVMojo]

MM&P-CONTRACTED CSX LINES PURCHASED BY THE CARLYLE GROUP
MM&P-contracted CSX Lines, the US-flag container shipping subsidiary of CSX Inc., will be sold to the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm based in Washington, DC for $300M. The acquisition will give Carlyle control over the nation's largest Jones Act container fleet and will add to the company's growing transportation portfolio.

CSX Lines will be renamed Horizon Lines LLC, when the transaction is completed early next year pending regulatory approval. CSX Lines is the nation's largest ocean transport company, with 17 US-flag vessels and 22,000 containers, providing ocean transportation and logistics services to and from the US, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Carlyle's other maritime holdings include Seabulk International, formerly Hvide Marine, which owns and operates 10 Jones Act tankers in the Gulf of Mexico. Through United Defense Industries, Carlyle controls United States Marine Repair, the nation's largest non-nuclear ship repair and conversion company.

Carlyle Group is a politically-connected global private equity firm with reportedly more than $13.9 billion under management. The company's directors and advisors include former President George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister John Major, and former Secretary of State James Baker. IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner is slated to become chairman of Carlyle on January 7, replacing former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci.

John Snow, the CEO of CSX, was appointed Treasury Secretary by the younger President Bush last week. The current CSX Lines President and Chief Executive Charles Raymond and his management team will remain in place. Raymond will also serve as chairman of the board.

more...

http://www.bridgedeck.org/mmp_news_archive/2002/mmp_news021219.html

and here's a weird twist:

Giant submarine company discussed: Carlyle Group, a US private equity group, is considering a bid for DML, which owns the Devonport Royal Dockyard that refits Britain's fleet of nuclear submarines. Carlyle is interested in DML as a way of levering itself into the Ministry of Defence's plans to create a single British submarine company — dubbed Subco — by merging the commercial dockyards. Subco would control the submarine assets of DML, BAE Systems' yard in Barrow-in-Furness, Babcock International's facilities at the Faslane naval base in Scotland, and Rolls-Royce, which makes the nuclear power plants for submarines. Not all companies involved are happy with the plan. To buy DML, Carlyle would have to seek agreement from the company's largest shareholder, Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the controversial US energy and construction company Halliburton. See "Carlyle mulls £450m swoop on Devonport submarine base," Clayton Hirst, The Independent, 2/27/05.

http://www.nsnet.com/archive-1-2005-02.html

and here:

CSX and the Carlyle complete conveyance of CSX lines
CSX Corporation and The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm, announced today that they have completed the conveyance of CSX Lines, LLC, from CSX to a venture formed with The Carlyle Group.

http://www.informare.it/news/review/2003/b030303.asp

I'm feeling more secure ...are you? :sarcasm: