Caldera Port II

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In August 2006, Costa Rica’s Pacific port authority, Instituto Costarricense de Puertos del Pacífico (INCOP), and Sociedad Portuaria Granelera de Caldera S.A. officially entered into a 20-year concession to manage Caldera Port’s multipurpose terminal on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The consortium Consorcio Portuario Caldera II was awarded the concession as part of a broad port modernization initiative to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the country’s ports began in 2001. A contract to build, operate and transfer Caldera Port’s new grain terminal was also awarded to Consorcio Portuario Caldera I under the same initiative and project company. There were two bidders for the project: Consorcio Portuario Caldera II and Codinsa, a Colombian consortium. The bidding began in August 2001 and the contract was officially awarded to Consorcio Portuaria Caldera II in May 2002 with a payment of US $5,081,000. Consorcio Portuaria Caldera II was comprised of two Colombian and two Costa Rican companies respectively: Portuaria Regional de Buenaventura S.A., a subsidiary of Grupo Empresarial del Pacifico S.A. (GEPSA); Estacion de Servicios Brisas del Pacífico S.A.; Comercializadora R y S, S.A. and Logistica de Granos S.A. The ownership was entirely private. The signing of the contract was delayed due to disputes over the Costa Rican government’s authority to concede the ports and the severance package for the port workers employed by INCOP. A settlement was reached for an indemnity of US $19 million. The contract was officially counter-signed in March 2006 and reached financial closure at that time. A three-month transition period commenced to fulfill the obligations of the contract. Under the terms set in the contract, the concessionaire had to establish a trust with the initial payment of US $5,081,000. In addition to the above fees, the concessionaire was obligated to pay 15% of annual revenues to INCOP. The contract estimated the net present value of the initial payment and revenue from annual cash flows was $10,674,413. To mitigate the risk of the investment, INCOP set up a contractual mechanism to ensure that the project had a minimum internal rate of return of 14.3%. On October 2016, SAAM announced the acquisition of a 51% stake at Sociedad Portuaria Granelera De Caldera S.A. Local firms Saret (21%) and Logística de Granos (19%), as well as Colombian company Grupo Empresarial del Pacífico (9%) kept their stakes in the project.