Port Authority outperforms expectations
Published:Friday | March 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
The Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) made a net surplus of J$1.83 billion at yearend March 2010, in a solid turnaround from a J$4.8-billion deficit.
Senior vice-president of finance and information systems, Winston Boothe, told the Financial Gleaner that the rebound was likely due a reversal of the J$6 billion of foreign-exchange losses that hammered the port in the year ending March 2009.
Boothe said he did not have the accounts before him and, therefore, could not give a more precise reading on the PAJ's performance.
On the measure most important to the port, operating income, the PAJ made J$3.92 billion, according to the Office of the Prime Minister. That performance almost tripled the J$1.4 billion of surplus made by the port in 2009-10 and more than doubled the preliminary estimate of J$1.7-billion operating surplus noted in the Jamaica Public Bodies report.
President Noel Hylton was said by his office to be in back-to-back meetings and unavailable for immediate comment.
Boothe declined to release more details in the new report, saying it had not yet been formally presented for tabling in Parliament.
He did not respond to questions emailed for more detailed responses on what other elements impacted the port's performance, and a current reading on the PAJ's indebtedness.
The Public Bodies report, however, had estimated that revenues would have dipped by J$400 million to J$12.26 billion and that forex losses would have contracted to J$690 million.
Information Minister Daryl Vaz said at a press briefing Wednesday that the forex losses on PAJ's foreign-currency loans amounted to J$316 million.
The outcome was less than half the PAJ's initial estimate, which would have been due to reappreciation of the Jamaican currency.
In the 2010-11 period, which closes this month, the Public Bodies report estimated that PAJ would have earned revenue of J$12.5 billion, an operating surplus of J$1.5 billion, and net surplus of J$668 million after forex losses of J$800 million.
The Port Authority, following a series of expansions that grew capacity to 3.2 million TEUs, was left with an expanding long-term debt of J$35 billion at last year's estimate.
Vaz said the PAJ paid out J$1.92 billion in finance and interest costs in the year ending March 2010.