NYK has taken full control of Ceres Container Terminals Europe B.V., which manages Ceres Paragon Terminal in Amsterdam.

This move, announced on December 25, finally resolves the 50-50 shareholding structure of NYK and Christos Kritikos¡¯s CNK Trust, who faced each other in court in 2005.

At that time, the court ruled that Mr Kritikos did not have to sell immediately the 50% which he held as sole trustee of the Trust.

Speaking to ci-online this afternoon, Mr Kritikos said according to the agreement with NYK, he had been due to exercise his option by December 31, 2006, and he did so on December 21.

He would not comment on how much extra he might have gained by being allowed to hang on to his share until now ¨C when CPT is finally handling the regular international and feeder business which had eluded it for so long.

However, he stressed that the transaction had been ¡°very amicable¡±.

Mr Kritikos founded Ceres Terminals Incorporated, whose facilities cover the US and Canada. CTI was acquired by NYK in October 2002, and according to CTI¡¯s latest report, operates as a standalone

This recent acquisition makes CCTE a 100% subsidiary of the Japanese group.

In its results for the fiscal year to March 31 2006, NYK stated that CCTE recorded €9m (US$10.87m) in sales.

CPT has a 550,000m2 yard area and quay length of 615m, for an annual handling capacity of 1.2m teu.