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THE
Philippines’ largest shipping company posted an earnings
hike from January to June this year, since it spent less
money on its fleet, which was reduced. The profit
increase reversed losses reported during the same period
last year.
In its
disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Monday,
Aboitiz Transport System Corp. (ATSC), the operator of
the SuperFerry vessels, said it earned P369.3 million
during the first six months, a turnaround from last
year’s losses of P25.5 million.
However,
the company’s operations remained weak with consolidated
revenues reaching P5.5 billion, a 4-percent drop from
the previous year.
Lower
revenues were brought about by a double-digit decline in
its freight and passenger volumes resulting from the
reduction of its vessels—to 9 from 14—and cutthroat
competition from smaller Roll-on/Roll-off operators.
In the
second quarter, the company completed the sale of
SuperFerry 16 and SuperFerry 17 vessels and reflected
total but one-time gains of over P364 million.
Income
from operations rose by 95 percent, to P211.3 million
from P108.2 million for the period, mostly due to the
continuous aggressive “cost-saving measures” and other
operating efficiencies implemented across the
organization.
Total
costs and expenses were reduced by 6 percent or P312
million to P5.3 billion by end of June 2007.
In its
bid to become debt-free by year-end, the publicly-listed
company was also able to cut its interest-bearing debt
by 73 percent from P2.4 billion as of December 2006 to
P646.2 million as of June 2007.
The
company “is determined to drive up passage demand by
offering year-round promotional rates. It is also
focused at further increasing its freight business while
enhancing the earning capacity of vessels through the
increase of freight and RoRo capacity,” ATSC said in its
disclosure.
During
the second quarter, the Aboitiz group’s shipping arm
continued to convert unused passage capacity to make
room to accept more cargo. Its Ro-Ro service, which
included the 2GO brand, has been gaining ground,
contributing over 23 percent of the company’s freight
business, it said.
Last
year, the company entered into a joint venture with MCC
Transport Singapore Pte Ltd & Mercantile Ocean Maritime
Co. (Filipinas) Inc. to form MCC Transport Philippines
Inc.
MCC
Transport
Singapore
is expert in container vessel operations and chartering
while Mercantile Ocean Maritime is a Philippine company
with world wide and local sales expertise.
The
Aboitiz group only owns 33 percent of the joint venture
company, MCC Transport owns 40 percent, and the
remaining 27 percent to Mercantile.
The
newly formed venture is running its first container
vessel, which can carry 400 twenty-foot metal
containers, offering a regular weekly service to Manila,
Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.
The
company is also set to embark on its cold chain
solutions during the latter part of the year, which it
earlier said that it would infuse about P300 million in
new investments. |
