ATI gets P1.32-B loan to fund capex, retire debts

Publicly-listed port operator Asian Terminals Inc. has secured a P1.32-billion loan facility from a consortium of banks to finance its capital expenditures and refinance existing debt, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In a disclosure, ATI corporate secretary Rodolfo Corvite Jr. said the company signed last week a note facility agreement arranged by the Standard Chartered Bank with various financial institutions.

"The above event is expected to have a positive impact on the company’s current or future operations, its financial position or results of operations," Corvite said.

The notes, which carry various maturity dates, is the second financing deal wrapped up by ATI this quarter alone, following a P600-million loan from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. last October.

The HSBC loan is a five-year loan facility that will support ATI major project, a P100-million passenger shipping terminal that would form part of a 10-year modernization program in the Manila Bay area.

Started construction last May, the new facility to rise at Pier 15 of he South Harbor has been designed to service passengers of domestic shipping lines, with amenities comparable with those of modern airports. In addition, the pier will be able to accommodate larger ships, hence opening up more opportunities for more efficient shipping operations and lower freight costs.

The Pier 15 upgrade is a vital component in the government’s 10-year South Harbor master development plan, which calls for the upgrading of piers, tripling of container yard space, and acquisition of new equipment and technology.

Together with the Philippine Ports Authority, ATI will concentrate on the construction of the new terminal in line with the total P670-million project cost for the modernization program, including other support facilities and equipment.

For its part, ATI has set a 25-year program to modernize and expand the South Harbor, leading off with the deployment and commissioning last year of modern cranes worth a total of $6.3 million. In April 2001, ATI embarked on a two-year, P566-million expansion of the main container yard intended to increase the container terminal’s annual capacity which already reached an all-time high last year.

Aside from the South Harbor, ATI operates three other international seaports in the Philippines: the Port of Batangas, the Mariveles Grains Terminal in Bataan, and the Port of General Santos in Mindanao. ATI, however, is in the final stages of selling its Mariveles terminal to San Miguel Corp. for about P1.2 billion.

The company also operates logistics services for the Malampaya offshore supply base of Shell Philippines Exploration as well as three large logistics centers in Calamba, Laguna.

In the first nine months of 2002, ATI’s net income had surged 24 percent to P446 million on revenues of P2.8 billion.