International Container Terminal Services Inc., (ICTSI) said profit for the first half of the year reached $113.4 million, down 12 percent from $128.5 million last year mainly due to COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) related expenses.
Revenues reached $724.3 million, down 4 percent from $751.8 million last year.
The company also said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at $416.4 million, down 2 percent from $424.4 million in 2019.
The company said it reported “lower operating income, increase in interest on concession rights payable and COVID-19 related expenses; partially tapered by a reduction in net loss at its greenfield terminal in Melbourne, Australia and lower equity in net loss of joint ventures.”
ICTSI said it registered an equity in net loss of joint ventures worth $9.7 million, down 22 percent from $12.4 million reported in 2019, attributed to the company’s share in net loss at Sociedad Puerto Industrial Aguadulce S.A. (SPIA), its joint venture container terminal project with PSA International Pte Ltd. (PSA) in Buenaventura, Colombia.
“Our primary focus and central to our decision making since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak has been, and remains, the safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers, and our stakeholders. We took immediate action to preserve cash and reduced our capital expenditure in what has been a period of significantly reduced economic and international trade activity, brought about by protracted lockdown periods for many countries around the world. These prudent measures taken early on, our diversified portfolio and maintaining a very high level of service to our clients has helped cushioned the impact from the pandemic and generated a resilient and better than expected performance,” said Enrique Razon Jr., ICTSI chairman.
“COVID-19 is now the major challenge for most businesses globally and we expect the second half of the year will continue to be challenging and marked with uncertainties.
However, ICTSI is well-positioned to navigate through these uncertain times, underpinned by our 32 terminals diversely located around the world, the resilience of our business model, agility and a strong capital structure,” he added.
ICTSI handled 4.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers for percent, down 5 percent from 5.04 million TEUs in 2019.
“The decrease in volume was primarily due to the decline in trade activities which resulted from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global trade and lockdown restrictions.
Excluding the contribution of the new terminal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ICTSI Rio, consolidated organic volume would have decreased six percent in the first half of 2020,” ICTSI said.
The company said its lower EBITDA was primarily due to “lower operating revenues; tapered by lower cash operating expenses resulting from continuous cost reduction and optimization measures, and positive contribution of the new terminal, ICTSI Rio.”
EBITDA margin was at 57 percent, up from 56 percent last year.
ICTSI said it spend $91.2 million as capital expenditures for the period, excluding capitalized borrowing costs, used mainly for the ongoing expansions at Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) in Manila, Philippines; Contecon Manzanillo S.A. (CMSA) in Mexico; and ICTSI DR Congo (IDRC) in Matadi, Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Amid the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global trade, the group has reduced its capital expenditure plan for the year to approximately $160 million, which will be utilized mainly to complete the ongoing expansion projects,” ICTSI said.
ICTSI operates container terminals in the 50,000 to 3 million TEU percent year range, with presence in six continents.
