ICTSI to acquire stake in major Pakistan port

Port king Enrique Razon Jr. is looking to expand his reach in the Middle East through an acquisition of a major port in Pakistan.

Razon’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) announced in a disclosure earlier this week its intention to acquire as much as 55 percent of Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT), a port developer in Karachi.

The acquisition will be made through subsidiary ICTSI Mauritius Ltd. ICTSI said the announcement was made through the Karachi branch of the company’s financial adviser, Citibank N.A., to the Karachi Stock Exchange on March 6.

“(PICT) is a container cargo terminal located at the Karachi Port in Pakistan,” ICTSI said in a statement. “It has a maximum handling capacity of 750,000 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs).”

ICTSI said it had the option to buy between 33 and 55 percent of PICT. At 55 percent, the purchase would cost ICTSI about $6.6 million.

For the fiscal year ending June 2011, PICT handled a total of 669,806 TEUs, 11 percent up year on year. Aside from its extensive domestic operations, ICTSI also has a presence in 16 other countries in four continents. In the Middle East, ICTSI operates Syria’s Tartous Container Terminal.

Last January, ICTSI successfully raised $150 million in perpetual bonds, which were consolidated into a similar offering issued a year earlier. The company said the extra funds were for further acquisitions.

On Tuesday, ICTSI also announced a 33-percent jump in 2011 profit to $130 million. This came as revenues from port operations reached $664 million, 26 percent up year on year.

The company said capital expenditures, or the money spent for the expansion of facilities, totaled $227 million, mainly for the civil works and acquisition of equipment at terminals in Manila, Ecuador and Brazil, and development projects in Argentina and Mexico.