By James A. Loyola
ICTSI Middle East DMCC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services, Inc., is borrowing up to EUR260 million after bagging the contract to develop and operate a container terminal in Sudan.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ICTSI said its Board of Directors has authorized its execution of a term loan facility agreement where ICTSI will be acting as the guarantor.
The Facility Agreement will be entered into pursuant to the Loan Facility Program Agreement dated July 24, 2014 entered into between ICTSI Global Finance B.V. as the borrower, ICTSI as the guarantor, and The Bank of New York Mellon, Singapore Branch as the trustee.
ICTSI Middle East, incorporated under the laws of the Emirate of Dubai, will accede to the Loan Program as an additional borrower and an additional obligor thereunder. The Facility Agreement relates to a term loan credit facility for an aggregate amount of EUR260 million with a tenor of up to 4 years.
Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited and Standard Chartered Bank have been appointed as exclusive original mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners of the Facility while Citicorp International Limited has been appointed as the facility agent.
ICTSI Middle East has signed a 20-year Concession Agreement with the Sea Ports Corporation of Sudan (SPC) to operate, manage and develop the South Port Container Terminal (SPCT).
SPC is the independent state corporation of the Republic of the Sudan that governs, constructs and maintains the country’s ports, harbors and lighthouses. ICTSI will assume the operational and development responsibility for SPC’s existing container terminal infrastructure and terminal handling equipment while SPC will become the landlord and supervisory authority for the terminal.
Transfer of the facilities to ICTSI management will take place in the first quarter this year.
The Tender Process was led by SPC, with Hamburg Port Consulting as international advisor, and attracted bids from a number of international port operators.
In 2017, SPCT had a throughput of 470,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). The terminal has a capacity in excess of 1 million TEU.
SPCT has state-of-the-art container terminal assets. It has a land area of 180 hectares and 1200 meters quay wall, with a design water depth of up to 16 meters and thus the capability to receive global shipping lines’ largest container vessels.