CK Hutchison said on Thursday its $22.8 billion ports business sale had a "reasonable chance" of going through after a plan to add a Chinese major strategic investor to the buying consortium, as it tries to navigate through Sino-U.

A transaction wouldn’t be completed this year even if binding agreements are settled sooner, said CK Hutchison co-managing director Frank Sixt at an analysts' briefing on Aug 13.

Conglomerate says the $23bn transaction is taking much longer than expected as it tries to win Beijing’s approval