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Kao Ming secures loan for BOT project in Kaohsiung

Kao Ming Container Terminal Corp (高明貨櫃碼頭公司), the wholly owned subsidiary of Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), secured a NT$16.3 billion (US$502 million) syndicated loan from 13 domestic banks yesterday to fund its build-operate-transfer (BOT) container terminal project at Kaohsiung Harbor.

The 20-year loan will have a floating interest rate that will begin at 2.355 percent, said Hsu Kuang-shi (徐光曦), president of Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際銀行), one of the loan’s leading banks, at a contract signing ceremony yesterday.

Casting a vote of confidence on the BOT project, the loan’s 13 lenders have over-subscribed by NT$4.1 billion, or 25.2 percent, to NT$20.3 billion, Hsu said.

Expressing his gratitude for the credit, Yang Ming chairman Frank Lu (盧峰海) said yesterday that the company would bring forward its construction schedule by completing the terminal project one year and nine months ahead of the scheduled 2014.

Kaohsiung Intercontinental Container Terminal will build four container terminals at a total cost of NT$18 billion, with the first terminal to open in September 2012.

“As of Monday, 53.6 percent of the [first] terminal has been completed, or 26.5 percent ahead of the schedule,” Lu said at yesterday’s signing ceremony.

The terminal, upon completion, will be able to accommodate four super-sized container ships at a total capacity of 2.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), expanding the southern harbor’s container volume, he said.

The projection’s potential has attracted three potential share investors, who have expressed a desire to take up a stake in Kao Ming, Lu said.

The terminal subsidiary may release up to 40 percent of its stake to other shareholders once the terminal project is completed, Lu said.

One of the government’s “i-Taiwan 12 Projects,” the “Kaohsiung Port-City Regeneration” efforts are expected to create jobs, Lu said.
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