ICTSI gets $50-M loan for foreign ports

Listed port operator International container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has finalized a $50-million credit facility with Credit Suisse First Boston International for funding its remaining foreign port projects, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The operator of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), ICTSI bagged a 30-year concession last year to operate and develop a container terminal at the Port of Suape in northeastern Brazil. It was established in 1978 as an industrial development zone covering 13,500 hectares.

ICTSI will be investing about $8 million into the project as its equity contribution, on top of the estimated $60-million capital expenditures for equipment and facilities over the entire 30-year contract, of which $13 million will be spent in the first year.

Suape is the first new foreign container terminal operated by ICTSI after the sale in June 2001 of its international subsidiaries with operations in six countries: Argentina, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Tanzania and Thailand.

ICTSI chairman and CEO Enrique Razon had said the company will pursue with new vigor port projects outside the Philippine except in the six abovementioned countries since among the terms of the sale specify that ICTSI cannot engage in port projects in these sites over the next four years.

The sale of the foreign ports significantly improved ICTSI’s debt profile as it was able to fully redeem early this year $130 million in convertible notes still due in 2004 using the sale proceeds.

The company said the note settlement has put it in a stronger financial position as its debt-to-equity ratio was reduced from 3.5x to 0.5x while its debt load dropped from P11 billion as of end-2000 to about P2.5 billion.

ICTSI reported a seven-percent gain in revenues to P3.23 billion last year while its net profit soared to P3.28 billion from only P59.44 million the previous year largely due to the one-time gain from the sale of its foreign terminals.