ICTSI bags Honduras deal

MANILA, Philippines - Port giant International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), controlled by  the country’s third richest businessman Enrique K. Razon, has bagged a 30-year contract to operate and maintain a container and cargo terminal in Puerto Cortes in Honduras.

ICTSI finance manager Arthur Tabuena informed the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that the company won the international public bidding process for the design, financing, construction, maintenance, operation, and exploitation of the specialized container and general cargo terminal of Puerto Cortes.

Tabuena said the container and general cargo terminal to be situated in a 62.2-hectare property would have a volume capacity of 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

The terminal would have 1.100 meter of quay for containers and 400 m for general cargo, 14 m of draft, and a total of 12 ship-to-shore (STS) cranes.

He pointed out that the technical committee of the bid process composed of the members of the Commission for the Public-Private Alliance (Coalianza), an entity of the federal government of Honduras, and Ficohsa Bank awarded the contract to ICTSI during a public hearing held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras last Feb. 1.

ICSTI, through subsidiary ICTSI Treasury BV, is raising as much as $750 million through the issuance of corporate notes to bankroll its ongoing expansion program in the country and overseas. It has so far raised $400 million.

ICTSI is in the business of acquiring, developing, managing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide. Established in December 1987 in the Philippines, ICTSI has become a leading operator, innovator and pioneer in its field.

ICTSI Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary, manages the company’s foreign operations. Aside from developing new port concessions, this subsidiary is also tasked with overseeing operations of all acquired foreign terminals.