NCB Holdings Bhd emerged as a centre-piece in PNB’s stable of companies following a corporate restructuring of companies engaged in the provision of port and transport logistics services in which PNB was the ultimate and majority shareholder. The corporate restructuring exercise, carried out in year 2000, involved three companies, namely, Kontena Nasional Berhad (KN), Kelang Container Terminal Bhd (KCT) and Klang Port Management Sdn Bhd (KPM).  The last two of which were engaged in the port services sector while KN was involved in land transport of containers and warehousing.

The restructuring was carried out with a view to rationalizing the activities of the three companies and also towards achieving greater vertical and horizontal integration in response to market demands and challenges.
The first stage involved injecting KPM operations into KCT and thus producing Northport (Malaysia) Bhd (NMB) as the largest port operating company in Malaysia.  KCT as the public listed arm in Bursa Malaysia was succeeded by NCB Holdings Bhd which ended up with two subsidiaries, namely NMB and KN.
NCB is thus the parent company of NMB, which is a port operating subsidiary, while KN is a container haulage and logistics services company.

NCB itself became a 56.9 percent owned company of PNB (and PNB managed funds) with two other shareholders being MISC Enterprise (15.8 percent), Port Klang Authority (5.3 percent) and others (22.0 percent).