ICTSI raises P1.65B from shares sale

MANILA, Philippines - Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) raised P1.65 billion from the sale of its entire stake in a container terminal in Cebu as part of efforts to divest non-core assets..

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) ICTSI treasury director Arthur Tabuena said the port operator has completed a transaction involving the sale of 127.5 million common shares at P12.93 per share representing 51 percent of the authorized and outstanding capital stock of Cebu International Container Terminal Inc. (CICTI) last Monday.

The shares were sold to Cebu Asian Rim Property & Development Corp. and Hong Kong Land (Philippines) BV which is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group.

Earnings of ICTSI jumped 27 percent to $135.65 million in the first nine months of last year from $106.84 million in the same period in 2012 on the back of strong revenues arising from its continued expansion overseas.

The port operator attributed the higher net income attributable to equity holders for the first nine months to strong revenue growth and margin improvement in certain key terminals and the contribution from the new terminal in Karachi, Pakistan.

Revenues from port operations rose 19 percent to $624.7 million from January to September last year compared to $524.7 million in the same period in 2012 as consolidated volume handled increased 13 percent to 4.628 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 4.083 million TEUs.

The listed firm attributed the increase in volume to the continuous growth in international and domestic trade in most of the company’s terminals and the volume generated by Pakistan International Container Terminal in Karachi and PT Olah Jasa Andal in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Excluding the revenues from the newly acquired terminals and the effect of the cessation of the operations in Syria last January, ICTSI said organic revenue growth was at one percent.

ICTSI’s seven key terminal operations in Manila, Brazil, Poland, Madagascar, China, Ecuador and Pakistan accounted for 79 percent of the group’s consolidated volume in the first nine months.