ICTSI secures P1-B loan from Equitable-Insular Life

Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has secured a P1-billion long-term loan from Equitable PCIBank and Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd., the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

In a disclosure ICTSI said it secured a seven-year floating rate peso-denominated loan of P500 million from Equitable PCIBank and a 10-year fixed rate peso-denominated loan of P500 million from Insular Life.

ICTSI said the proceeds of the loan will be used to prepay its P1- billion long-term commercial papers on Sept. 24. The LTCPs, which were issued in June 1999, will mature on June 24, 2004.

In the first half of 2003, the company posted a net income of P222 million compared with a P3.43-billion profit the same period last year which included extraordinary gains of P3.7 billion from the sale of subsidiary ICTSI International Holdings Corp. to Hutchison International Port Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong.

On a recurring basis, this year’s six-month net income level was an improvement of 13 percent over the comparable profit of P196 million in 2002.

Consolidated gross revenues rose 38 percent to P3.4 billion from P2.5 billion last year, reflecting the anchor port Manila International Container Terminal’s revenue growth of 13 percent. The growth was also due to the inclusion of revenues from the Baltic Container Terminal (BCT) in Poland, amounting to P583.8 million.

Current liabilities, on the other hand, amounted to P3.2 billion, up by 80 percent from the 2002 balance of P1.8 billion. The significant increase was due mainly to the reclassification of the LTCP to current debt and to new short-term loans.

ICTSI incurred additional short-term peso-denominated bank loans of P220 million to fund working capital requirements.

During the period under review, the company spent a little over P2.6 billion to service debt and finance its investment in BCT.

ICTSI has earmarked $80 million for the operation and management of the BCT, one of the premier container terminals in Poland. The amount is on top of the $41 million payment made by ICTSI for the project. The company is eyeing over half a billion dollars in revenues over its 20-year lease period.

The project is part of ICTSI’s efforts to revive its international operations after disposing of IIHC to the Hutchison Group.

Apart from Poland, ICTSI has a 30-year concession to operate the port of Suape in Brazil. It is also eyeing projects in Canada, India, Japan, Australia, and Thailand.