CK Hutchison wants Chinese firm to join bidding for its US$22.8 billion ports business
The Hong Kong conglomerate in a statement said changes to the composition of the consortium and structure of the transaction will be necessary to secure regulatory approval, and that it will allow as much time as needed to achieve that.
A 145-day exclusivity period for talks between the parties expired on Sunday.
CK Hutchison's Hong Kong-listed shares were due to open higher just shy of one per cent on Monday.
A deal would cover 43 ports in 23 countries including two ports near the Panama Canal which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
US President Donald Trump initially hailed the sale as "reclaiming" the Panama Canal after his administration called for the removal of what it said was Chinese ownership of some ports.
US investment firm BlackRock declined to comment. COSCO, Italian consortium member MSC and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China views the potential sale as a threat to its interests, seeing the consortium as a proxy for growing American influence in a region it considers economically and geopolitically significant.
State-backed media, in criticism of the sale, said China has significant national interests in the matter and that selling the ports would be a betrayal of the country.
China's top market regulator said it was paying close attention to developments and stressed the deal would be subject to a Chinese antitrust review.
CK Hutchison in its statement said any new investor must be a "significant" member of the consortium.
"This is an interesting development. A PRC (China) investor with majority control of the consortium sounds like a non-starter in my view. An investor with a less than 50 per cent stake you would think should keep everyone happy," said strategist David Blennerhassett of Ballingal Investment Advisors who publishes on SmartKarma.
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