STATE firm Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said it posted higher revenues for the first two months of the year, but it had a lower net income for the period after higher cost of expenses from port maintenance has eroded its cash flow.

In a report, PPA said that it had a net income of P290.43 million for the January-to-February period, or almost 20 percent lower than last year’s P359.3 million.

PPA said that its gross revenues grew by about percent for the period, usually one of the lean months of the year, to P937 million from last year’s P904.1 million.

“The increase in PPA’s revenue is attributed to increase in traffic volume and nontraditional revenues,” it said

Port revenues reached P923.7 million, more than 5 percent compared with last year’s, but its income from fund management, or those cash invested in bonds and other interest-bearing instruments, slid by more than 53 percent to P13.2 million compared with the previous P28.41 million.

PPA explained that the decrease is due to the decline in interest rates and lower funds that were meant for investing.

The state firm’s higher revenues have been eroded by the increased expenses from dredging costs, utilities and other services.

PPA incurred total expenses of P646.46 million, or P101.65 million higher than last year’s P545 million.

It added that its nonoperating expenses, which consist of interest charges on foreign loans, corporate notes, extraordinary losses among others, also increased to P60 million, or 20 percent higher than last year.

PPA attributed this to the interest on corporate notes, or the portion of the P2-billion bonds that the state firm started to float last year.

So far, the underwriters—Development Bank of the Philippines and First Metro Investment Corp.—have already floated P1.5 billion since July last year.

PPA is also paying the interest charges of P5.5 billion for Batangas Port Development Project Phase II, or the international port, which started in July and was completed in December last year. The project was funded by Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

For the year, PPA has allocated some P1.8 billion for its locally funded projects nationwide. These are composed of some 46 major projects under various stages, but three have already been completed during the first three months of the year.

These are the ports of Dapitan, Masao and Dumaguete, all of which were either expanded to accept larger vessels or repaired. 

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STATE firm Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said it posted higher revenues for the first two months of the year, but it had a lower net income for the period after higher cost of expenses from port maintenance has eroded its cash flow.

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