ICTSI earnings rise 3% to $153 M in 9 months

Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) earned just three percent more in the first nine months of the year due to higher operating income from organic terminals and lower net loss in one of its investments.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ICTSI said its net income attributable to equity holders inched up to $153.3 million from $149.3 million in the same period last year.

The company attributed the increase to a number of factors, particularly the strong operating income from organic terminals; a decrease in the company’s share in the net loss at Sociedad Puerto Industrial Aguadulce S.A. (SPIA), and a $2.8 million non-recurring gain from the pre-termination of interest rate swap related to the pre-payment of the project finance loan at its terminal in Manzanillo, Mexico in May 2018.

SPIA is joint venture container terminal project with PSA International Pte Ltd. (PSA) in Buenaventura, Colombia. ICTSI’s share in the net loss of the project decreased from $25.6 million in the first nine months of 2017 to $23.3 million for the same period in 2018 as the company continued to ramp up container volume.

ICTSI said the increase in earnings, however, was tapered by the drag from the new terminals and a $7.5-million non-recurring gain on the termination of the sub-concession agreement in Nigeria in the second quarter of 2017.

“Excluding the non-recurring gains, consolidated net income attributable to equity holders would have increased by six percent,“the company added.

Meanwhile, gross revenues in the first nine months of the year jumped by 10 percent to $1 billion from $918.3 million in the same period last year.

“The increase in volume was primarily due to improvement in trade activities at most of the company’s terminal locations and the contribution of new terminals in Lae and Motukea in Papua New Guinea, and Melbourne, Australia,” ICTSI said.

“Excluding the new terminals, consolidated volume would have increased by two percent,” it added.

In the first nine months of the year, the company handled consolidated volume of 7,152,392 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a five percent rise from the 6,836,611 TEUs handled in the same period last year.

Moreover, capital expenditures, excluding capitalized borrowing costs for the first nine months of the year, amounted to $196.4 million, approximately 52 percent of the $380 million capital expenditures budget for full year 2018.

“The established budget is mainly allocated for the capacity expansion in its terminal operations in Manila, Mexico and Iraq; continuing rehabilitation and development of the company’s container terminal in Honduras; procurement of additional equipment and minor infrastructure works in its newly acquired terminal operations in Papua New Guinea; and the completion of its new barge terminal project in Cavite City, Philippines,“the company said.