Marubeni exits Bauan port; ICTSI buys add’l 20% stake

Enrique Razon Jr.

A subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is taking over full ownership of Bauan International Port Inc. Philippines (BIPI) after entering into a P507.41-million share purchase agreement with Marubeni Corp.

In a disclosure on Tuesday, the Razon-led port operator shared that wholly-owned subsidiary IWI Container Terminal Holdings Inc. had acquired 2.05 million shares of Marubeni in BIPI, representing a 20-percent stake.

Latest annual report showed that ICTSI had held 80-percent ownership in BIPI prior to the transaction.

BIPI operates a 20-hectare facility in Bauan, Batangas., about 120 kilometers south of Manila and nine kilometers west of Batangas City. Cargo movements on this terminal include those coming in and out of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

According to its annual report, the Batangas port has a 240-meter berth with two berthing positions.

Earlier this month, ICTSI announced that its Mexico-based subsidiary Contecen Manzanillo SA de CV (CMSA) had started with the third phase of its $230-million port expansion project.

The project is expected to boost its capacity to more than 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) within the next five years from the current 1.4 million TEUs.

It will generate additional 600 new direct jobs and 11,600 indirect jobs. The port currently directly employs 1,200 workers.

“Manzanillo is the most important node of international logistics in the Pacific Coast of Mexico and it will continue to be so,” CMSA CEO José Antonio Contreras said earlier.

The listed port operator saw its nine-month net income improve by 47 percent to $465.1 million from a year ago due to higher container volume and port revenues. Gross revenues from port operations rose by 20 percent to $1.64 billion as of end-September as the market recovers from the impact of the pandemic.

Capital expenditures amounted to $281.3 million as of end-September. These were allocated for expansion projects in several ports, including the Manila International Container Terminal and ICTSI DR Congo S.A. INQ