The Nassau Container Port’s (NCP) operator is aiming “to save every penny we can” following a financial year where its predictions of a near-$3m profit decline proved spot-on.
Dion Bethell, chief financial officer for BISX-listed Arawak Port Development Company (APD), told Tribune Business yesterday that it “tightened our belt” on cost controls to ensure its bottom line for the year to end-June 2018 came in around $350,000 above expectations.
Although APD’s profits slumped 20.8 percent year-over-year, falling from $11.171m to $8.858m, the company had been up against tough prior year comparatives due to a double Baha Mar boost – the resumption of construction to complete the project, and recovery of $1.1m in rent and storage fees owed when it went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Michael Maura, APD’s chief executive, said the anticipated fall-off in Baha Mar-related construction imports produced a 5.5 percent year-over-year decline in twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers moving through the Arawak Cay-based port.
In the absence of significant construction sector pick-up elsewhere, he revealed that dry bulk aggregate volumes fell by 17.23 percent compared to 2017, although continued Bahamian demand for used vehicles saw import levels in this category grow 4.3 percent year-over-year.
With revenues for the 2018 financial year down by just over $1m, or 3.1 percent, Mr Bethell said APD’s cost management focus had resulted in it electing to pay-off its $3m-plus Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) loan early to save around $100,000 in debt servicing (interest) costs.
And, while he and Mr Maura both forecast a 2019 financial performance that will be flat compared to last year on revenue and profits, APD has gently increased staff numbers in preparation for what both believe will be improved economic growth thereafter.
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