Listed port operator Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) declared a total cash dividend of P820 million, or 41 cents per share, as it delivered another strong overall performance amid the challenging backdrop of 2015.
This was announced by ATI chairman Rashid Abdulla at the company’s annual stockholders meeting on April 28. The dividends would be paid on June 15, 2015 to stockholders on record as of May 20, 2015.
The cash dividend represents 46% of the company’s net income of P1.8 billion in 2015 and is ATI’s highest declaration in three decades.
ATI in a statement said that without the foreign exchange impact—as per accounting rules brought in since 2013—its net income would have been P1.9 billion, up by 0.8% from P1.8 billion in 2014 on a like-for-like basis.
The 2015 total revenues stood at P8.1 billion, marginally lower than 2014 by 1.1%, “but (the company) significantly maintained its step change status compared to 2013 when revenues were at the more modest P6.5 billion mark,” it added.
“Last year’s achievements are testament to the ability of ATI’s management team to manage costs prudently while maintaining the levels of service expected of us by our customers during a challenging period,” Abdulla said.
“This is particularly encouraging because this means that we have been able to avoid a backward step in earnings while continuing the wide scale investment and optimization program that has been in full swing since 2013 as we ensure service reliability and sustainability in the long-term,” he added.
ATI’s investment program last year delivered five new rubber-tired gantry (RTG) cranes, increasing South Harbor’s RTGs to 23 units for a 50% growth in fleet size since 2012, and also deployed additional empty container handlers.
Major technology innovations also came on stream, led by the government’s Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS), which ATI said has fast-tracked the flow of goods from port to markets.
ATI handled a consolidated throughput in excess of one million twenty-foot equivalent units, more than a million tons of general cargoes, and nearly 3.5 million outbound passengers in 2015. During the same period, Batangas Port delivered over 140,000 imported cars, comprising the majority of car sales nationwide.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
