ICTSI’s 1st quarter net income up 36%

ICTSI’s 1st quarter net income up 36% Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Inc. today reported a 36 percent rise in first quarter net income to Peso510.2 million ($10.8 million), compared to Peso374.8 million a year ago.
   Gross revenue from port operations in the period increased 16 percent to Peso3.12 billion ($66.3 million), up from Peso2.69 billion in the first quarter 2006.
   ICTSI’s group-wide container volume in the first three months of the year was 642,475 TEUs, up 39.8 percent over 459,403 TEUs last year.
   Domestic operations accounted for 371,314 TEUs, or 58 percent of the consolidated volume. Domestic volume for the quarter was 27 percent higher than the first quarter of 2006 due to an 11.1 percent volume growth in the Manila International Container Terminal (315,784 TEUs) and from new operations in Davao (46,665 TEUs), ICTSI said.
   ICTSI’s foreign container volume now represents 42 percent of its total volume as compared with 36 percent in the first quarter last year, rising 63 percent year-on-year to 271,161 TEUs. ICTSI said the increase was due to new volumes from operations in Indonesia (Makassar, 30,575 TEUs) and China (Yantai, 51,866 TEUs), as well as strong results at its existing Polish (Gdynia, up 9.1 percent to 110,653 TEUs) and Brazilian (Suape, up 27.7 percent to 56,321 TEUs) terminals.
   “The first quarter is normally our softest period, but ICTSI is off to a strong start this year with all of our major terminals reporting excellent results,” said Enrique K. Razon Jr., ICTSI’s chairman and chief executive officer.
   During the quarter, ICTSI completed a follow-on secondary offering of 300 million ICTSI shares by a subsidiary, generating some $155 million of net proceeds, and was also awarded a 20-year public service concession for the container terminal and related facilities at the Port of Guayaquil in Ecuador, which it is expected to assume responsibility for in July.
   “We are looking forward to the start up of our operations in Syria and Ecuador later in 2007 even as we continue to pursue our aggressive international expansion strategy,” Razon said.