ICTSI allots $550M for capex

MANILA, Philippines - Port giant International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is spending $550 million to bankroll its operations abroad and expand its presence in the Philippines.

In a report to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), ICTSI said this year’s budget for capital expenditures would be used to complete the company’s terminal development projects in Argentina and Mexico.

The publicly-held port operator would also use the budget to ramp-up of its construction activities in Colombia as well as in Davao.

The company spent $465.6 million for its expansion against a full year capital expenditure budget of $550 million in 2012.

The company’s projects last year included the construction of a new berth, additional yard space and acquisition of major cargo handling equipment in the company’s container terminal operation in Manila, capacity expansions in its operations in Ecuador and Brazil, and development of new container terminals in Argentina and Mexico. 

Early this year, the company through its ICTSI Treasury BV raised $400 million as part of its $750 million medium term note program to fund expansion programs.

ICTSI booked a 10 percent growth in net income to $144 million last year from $131 million recorded in 2011 as consolidated volume handled climbed 7.5 percent to 5.628 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 5.233 million TEUs.

Volume growth was traced to the increase in international and domestic trade, new shipping line customers and routes, continuous containerization of break bulk cargoes, the full period contribution of the company’s new ports in Portland, Oregon, USA and Rijeka, Croatia.

The growth was also traced to the consolidation of the volume generated by the ICTSI’s new terminal operations in Jakarta, Indonesia and Karachi, Pakistan.

This translated to a 10 percent growth in revenues from port operations to $729.3 million last year from $664.8 million in 2011.

Excluding the volume from the four recent port acquisitions, organic volume growth was at four percent.

ICTSI said the volume from six key terminal operations in Manila, Brazil, Poland, Ecuador, Madagascar and China rose six percent to 4.109 million TEUs from 3.867 million TEUs and accounted for 73 percent of the company’s consolidated volume last year.

Data showed that recurring net income attributable to equity holders increased 15 percent after adjusting the previous year’s net income attributable to equity holders to $124.4 million from the one-time net gain of $6.1 million from the sale of ICTSI’s 16.79 percent ownership stake in Portek International Limited and a one-time equity tax charge imposed by the Colombian tax authorities on all legal entities and individuals in Colombia.

Consolidated cash operating expenses rose 10 percent to $319.0 million from $289.3 million driven by higher volume-related expenses (i.e. on-call labor, fuel, power and repairs and maintenance) and government-mandated and contracted salary rate increases in certain terminals.

The increase could also be attributed to higher concession fees in the company’s operations in Recife, Brazil, higher business development expenses, the full period consolidation of the expenses of the terminals in Portland, Oregon and Rijeka, Croatia and the inclusion of the expenses of the new terminals in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Karachi, Pakistan.

ICTSI is a leading port management company involved in the operations and development of 27 marine terminals and port projects in 19 countries worldwide.  The company was among the first international terminal operators to take its expertise overseas.