Baltic Container Terminal sold to ICTS

International Container Terminal Services INC (ICTS) of the Philippines has bought Baltic Container Terminal (BCT) from Morski Port Gdynia for $40 million. However, the privatization of the terminal does not entail the sale of land or facilities, but is only a 20-year lease, informed the company. Under the agreement ICTS is obliged to gradually increase the terminal's output under the threat of penalties should the volume of transshipment fall short of expectations. ICTS' competitors in the bid for BCT were American CSX World Terminals, Maersk Polska and Gdynia based Wolny Obszar Gospodarczy controlled by Gdynia Shipyard and Kredyt Bank. "We are the first terminal to undergo such a large scale privatization", said BCT chairman Jerzy Wie lenski. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7; www.biznes.onet.pl) J.K.