INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) will remain focused on its expansion plans this year after seeing encouraging first-quarter financial results.
In a stock exchange filing on Monday, ICTSI said earnings attributable to equity holders during the January to March period reached $209.88 million, a 36-percent growth on higher operating income driven by its international portfolio.
Excluding income from the settlement of legal claims by ICTSI Oregon and the nonrecurring impact of the sale of PT PBM Olah Jasa Andal, its net income would have been $191.02 million, up 24 percent.
Revenues from port operations expanded to $637.65 million from $572.25 million.
“Our international portfolio performed exceptionally well, and the group continues to benefit from geographic diversification spanning 19 countries, which has enabled us to deliver growth despite regional economic headwinds,” ICTSI chair and president Razon said in a disclosure.
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Revenues were lifted by ancillary services, tariff adjustments and volume growth in Mexico, according to ICTSI.
However, the growth was slightly tempered by a decline in consolidated volume, which was down to 3.09 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) during the quarter from 3.1 million TEUs in the same period last year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization expanded by 17 percent to $413.76 million.
ICTSI’s capital outlay in the first three months of the year reached $67.94 million, which was allotted for local and international expansions, mainly Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This year, the group aims to spend $450 million for further expansion in these countries, and for the last tranche of concession extension-related expenditures in Madagascar.
Aggressive expansion
Locally, ICTSI announced earlier this year it would take over and develop the Visayas Container Terminal (VCT), or the Iloilo port in Western Visayas, under a 25-year concession agreement with the national government.
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With a P10.53-billion budget, ICTSI said it would rehabilitate the terminal facility and provide cargo-handling equipment to improve operations.
It added that additional equipment was set to arrive “in the coming weeks,” including five empty container handlers, 12 prime movers, and 12 trailers.
ICTSI, through VCT, will also deploy two mobile harbor cranes in September to boost vessel operations.
The international seaport in Iloilo City handles a volume of 100,000 TEUs and 2 million metric tons of noncontainerized cargo annually.
It has 627 meters of operational quay length and 20 hectares of land used for container and general cargo storage, warehousing, and other cargo-handling activities. INQ