Harbour Centre eyes more ports

MANILA, Philippines –  Harbour Centre Port Terminals Holdings Inc., a company owned by the Romero family, is working towards increasing the number of ports in the Philippines that it owns or controls to five before it goes public possibly by the third quarter this year, a top company official told The STAR.

From P1 billion in authorized capital, the holding company plans to increase this to P3 billion before it undertakes an initial public offering (IPO) of around 30 percent of its shares, Harbour Centre Holdings chief executive officer Michael Romero said.

Harbour Centre Holdings is the holding company of the Romero family for its port operations which currently includes Manila North Harbor and Harbour Centre. Harbour Centre Port Terminals Inc. (HCPTI) owns 65 percent of Manila North Harbor Port Inc. (MNHPI), a joint venture with Petron Corp. that won the 25-year contract to develop, manage, operate and maintain North Harbor, the country’s oldest and busiest domestic port.

Harbour Centre, on the other hand, is a 15-hectare multi-purpose private commercial port terminal located within the 79-hectare port-city complex called Manila Harbour Centre.

Once the reorganization currently being implemented is finished, Romero will end up owning about 60 percent of the holding company while his father, Reghis Romero, will own the rest.

The younger Romero, also president of HCPTI, said in an interview that they have not decided yet whether to list the holding company in Manila or in Singapore, or in both. The holding company was incorporated in 2007.

HCPTI has offered to develop the naval supply depot (NSD) break- bulk cargo operations in Subic and has pledged to invest P6 billion into the facility.

The concession covers a period of 25 years.

Under the terms, HCPTI will give variable commitments per metric ton of 20 percent depending on volume plus a minimum guarantee of $500,000 per year escalating every year.

Covering 17 hectares, the NSD is a common user, multi-purpose terminal that caters to various types of cargo. It handles about two million tons of cargo every year and serves the port requirements of businesses in Central and Northern Luzon and the industries in the Subic Freeport zone.

Romero also said that they are looking at two more ports, one in Visayas and another in Mindanao, that they can own or operate.

“These two other domestic smaller ports can benefit from the strength of our North Harbor operations. All our ports will be operating using one Web-based operating system. We will also set up cranes in these two other ports in Visayas and Mindanao,” he said. HCPTI is still in negotiations with the owners of these two ports.

Earlier, Romero revealed that HCPTI experienced a 20 percent growth in 2010 or from 4.6 million tons of cargo handled in 2009 to 5.5 million tons serviced last year.  

He told The STAR that the growth in the economy and the added importation of agricultural and construction products were the primary reasons behind the robust and tremendous growth of HCPTI.

Romero also said that the addition of the Manila North Harbor or Northport into the Group added 14 million tons of cargoes every year making the total cargo-handling operations of the Harbour Centre Group at 20 million tons a year. “The strategic partnership between the Harbour Centre Group and San Miguel/Petron group would surely be a growth mechanism for the port in the future,” he pointed out.

For this year, he said the Harbour Centre Group would try to sustain the momentum it had in 2010, and aims to grow through strategic tie-ups domestically and internationally.

Romeo said Harbour would try to vie for two domestic outports and two foreign ports in the Asian region.

Just recently, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) approved the stepping in of SMC subsidiary Petron as HCPTI’s joint venture partner in the Manila North Harbor Port Inc (MNHPI), the company which was granted the P14.5-billion, 25-year contract to operate, rehabilitate and modernize the country’s oldest and busiest port.

Petron Corp. acquired 35 percent of MNHPI vice Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) which pulled out of the joint venture due to control issues.

MNHPI has also submitted to PPA the comprehensive and revised masterplan for North Harbor’s modernization that considers the actual requirement of port users. It now includes the setting aside of five hectares for Petron’s bunker refuelling station.

“The refuelling station can be put up in six months to one year,” Romero said.

Romero told The STAR that of the P14.5 billion project cost, 40 percent will be internally financed while 60 percent will be from debts through a syndication of several banks.

MNHPI has also named former Asian Terminal Inc (ATI) president Richard Barclay as its new chief operations officer while Petron and MNHPI will have a common chief financial officer.

Romero also revealed that in the masterplan, the actual volume of containers rather than the 850,000 base given by the PPA will be used as basis for the phasing of development. “But we will still have the passenger terminal in the next two years and the container terminal in the next three years,” he said.