CHELSEA Logistics Holdings Corp., a firm led by Davao businessman Dennis Uy, said it acquired a total of five vessels since July this year as part of its expansion plans after its initial public offering.
The company said the vessel acquisitions will increase capacity by 10 percent and should start to contribute to earnings as early as the last quarter of 2017. “The newly acquired vessels will bring us another step closer to fulfilling our commitment to growth in order to realize more value for our stakeholders, from the investors to the consumers,” Uy said in a statement.
In July its unit Trans-Asia Shipping Lines Inc., a cargo passenger company that plies between Cebu-Cagayan and Cebu-Butuan, acquired a 6,348 gross-registered-tons (GRT) cargo vessel named MV Orient Spirit.
The vessel, which has a capacity of 400 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), will be in operation by the first quarter of 2018 and will ply the Manila-Cebu-Manila route. Last month, PNX-Chelsea Shipping Corp., a subsidiary of Chelsea Shipping Corp., acquired three vessels with a combined GRT of 15,811 that will serve the cargo-transport requirements of the 2GO Group. These vessels are now in commercial operations.
On the other hand, Fortis Tugs Corp., also a subsidiary of Chelsea Shipping, recently acquired a 125-GRT Japanese-built tugboat, MT Fortis VI, which will bolster its tugboat fleet used to maneuver tankers and other larger vessels. This tugboat will be operational by December and will bring the total tugboat fleet to nine.
The company recently acquired Starlite Ferries Inc., a roll-on, roll-off and passenger-ship operator in Batangas and other routes, to strengthen its position in Southern Luzon (Batangas) to northern Visayas (Calapan, Odiogan, Roxas) route.
Starlite owns and operates 14 vessels of various sizes, five of which were acquired from Japan and are brand new. Combined with 2GO’s 30-percent market share, the purchase expands Chelsea’s market share to 36 percent as of third quarter 2017.
“Shipping is a high-margin, high-return, capital-intensive business. What we are doing now is laying the foundation for a sustainable, cash-generative business by making these critical shipping investments in form of acquisitions of vessels and/or companies. This is complemented by the logistics business, which we expect to have the biggest growth potential,” company CEO Chryss Alfonsus V. Damuy said.
The Udenna Group of Uy ventured into shipping in 2006 through Chelsea Shipping Corp. to support the operations of Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. It has since grown the business into the country’s biggest logistics group with the largest tanker fleet in terms of capacity.