ICTSI eyes more foreign port projects

ICTSI eyes more foreign port projects

MANILA (Reuter): Philippine port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) said yesterday it was considering managing ports in Brazil and Indonesia.

ICTSI chairman Enrique Razon said the firm was studying whether to bid for the management contract of two ports in Brazil -- Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo -- and whether to join a private group running a port in Jakarta.

"The bidding for the Rio de Janeiro port will be in July. For the Jakarta port, we're not bidding for that. There's a group that has launched that project and we're looking if we're going to come in or not," Razon said.

He said ICTSI would want a majority stake in the Rio de Janeiro port project but would settle for just a management contract for the Jakarta port.

If ICTSI proceeded with the port projects, it would be several years before it sought any new deals, he said. "If we really wanted to go for them, these should be good for a couple of years since these are big projects."

ICTSI recently won a contract to manage the Yemeni port of Aden. Razon said ICTSI would begin sending people to run the port by the end of September.

Aside from Aden, ICTSI also operates ports in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Veracruz, Mexico and will also soon develop the Karachi port in Pakistan.

ICTSI plans to spend 1.20 billion pesos for capital outlay this year, the bulk of which would come from internal funds.

ICTSI president Carlos Soriano said his firm was aiming for a 26 percent rise in its 1996 net profit to 405 million pesos from 321 million pesos in 1995.

Revenues are projected to grow 14 percent to 2.5 billion pesos from last year's 2.2 billion pesos.

"The increase will come from volume growth. We're projecting a 15 percent increase in container volumes," he said.

Last year, the firm's container volume was at 708,191 TEUs.