Can the leading container-terminal operator repeat its all-round CY16 performance this year? Pakistan International Container Terminal (PSX: PICT) has closed the half-year ended June 30, 2017 with no discernible change in either topline or bottomline. That’s negative year-on-year growth in real terms. But investors may like to see the glass half full. Along with the lackluster results, the BoD declared an interim cash dividend of Rs7.5 per share, on top of an interim cash dividend of Rs3.8 per share already paid.

In business since 2002, PICT – whose 65.5 percent shareholding rests with the Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc. – holds a build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract with the Karachi Port Trust (KPT). The contract, which is valid until June 2023, requires the PICT to exclusively construct, develop and manage a common user terminal at the Karachi Port. Upon contract expiration, PICT will transfer all the assets (land and related concessions) to the KPT.

PICT’s main business indicator – Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of container traffic handled – has expanded by about a quarter since 2011, reaching 0.828 million TEUs in 2016. (Back in 2013, PICT switched its financial year to start from January instead of July). Net revenues have grown higher, by about 52 percent in those six years, indicating better service pricing. Net profits, however, have more than doubled in the period, suggesting increasing cost efficiencies down the line.

During the same time, the size of balance sheet has almost halved, to Rs4.64 billion in CY16. On one hand, thanks to the depreciation charge, there has been a continued drawdown of the firm’s property, plant and equipment assets, something uncompensated for by new capital spending. Additionally, the firm has used most of its net operating cash flows to pay dividends to its shareholders and to retire its long-term borrowings. By the close of CY16, PICT had zero long-term debt in its capital structure.

Over at the bourse, PICT’s is a thinly-traded stock, with average trading volume standing at just over a thousand shares per day. Less than 2 percent of the firm’s 109.15 million outstanding shares are with the general public. The stock, which closed unchanged at Rs373.33 yesterday (August 16), has been up 5.16 percent in the year-to-date period, scaling a high of Rs578.99 earlier in January this year.

PICT’s business is directly linked with Pakistan’s external trade, where overall volume of container traffic is seemingly growing. While Pakistan’s exports have been sluggish, imports continue their growth momentum. However, despite growing number of TEUs of container traffic handled by PICT, the going may get tough this calendar year, thanks to competitive pressure pulling services prices down. Already, in 2QCY17, PICT’s gross profits slid by over 5 percent year-on-year.