Pakistan International Container Terminal

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Premier Mercantile Services (Pvt) Ltd (PMS) won the build, operate, and transfer (BOT) contract for a container terminal at berths 6-9 of the East Wharf in Karachi Port for a concession period of 21 years. Karachi Port Trust (KPT) awarded the contract to PMS in April 2002, and the parties signed an Implementation Agreement on June 18, 2002. Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) was formed as the Terminal Operating Company and took over the dedicated container terminal on October 15th, 2002. PICT has a draft of 11.5 meters, a quay wall of 600 meters and a dedicated terminal area of 22 hectares. PMS offered 16 million shares in PICT to the general public on the Karachi Stock Exchange in August 2003, corresponding to 24% of the company’s equity. As of December 2008, the other major shareholders in PICT were PMS (34%) and Jahangir Siddiqui and Co. Ltd. (20%). In May 2003, the IFC committed financing consisting of a US$7.75 million A loan and a US$1.5 million subordinated loan toward the US$31.8 million first phase of the project. PICT achieved successful completion of all contractual obligations of the first phase development earlier than scheduled, on March 31st, 2004. In 2005, the IFC signed two separate A loan agreements – for US$6 million and US$8 million - toward the second and third phases of the project, respectively. In June 2008, the IFC committed US$11 million in financing toward the US$30.7 million fourth phase of the project, aimed at bringing capacity to 750,000 TEUs per year. The remainder of the fourth phase financing came in the form of a US$3 million loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and US$17 million in sponsor's equity. The fourth phase of PICT was completed in June 2009.