Port Services Corp. plans to continue operation for one more year

Muscat: Port Services Corporation (PSC), which manages Muscat’s Port Sultan Qaboos (PSQ), has said that the company’s board has decided to extend the concession agreement to manage and operate the port, with the same terms and conditions for one more year, continuing until December 31, 2017.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications last week requested the majority state-owned company to continue operations for three months, after the company’s extraordinary general meeting decided to liquidate the firm, with effect from January 1, 2017.
“The corporation will agree to this extension of the concession agreement for one year, subject to the Ministry of Transport and Communications accepting and agreeing to all the terms and conditions making the operation viable, which will be conveyed to the Ministry of Transport and Communications,” according to a disclosure statement posted on the MSM website, following the company’s emergency board meeting on December 22. After receiving confirmation, and acceptance of an extension of the concession agreement, along with the acceptance of the terms and conditions, the corporation will write to the CMA to obtain its approval to convene an extraordinary general meeting in January 2017 to defer its liquidation of PSC.
In September, the company had said that renewal of the concession agreement to operate and manage Port Sultan Qaboos for another year would not be economically viable and would not generate adequate returns for shareholders. PSC’s revenue began declining substantially after the government shifted commercial activities of Muscat port to Sohar port in August 2014, in a move to convert the former into a full-fledged tourism port. The Oman government, which has a 35.5 per cent stake in PSC, recently transferred its stake to the Oman Investment Fund.
The MSM, in a separate circular, earlier said that shares of PSC will be transferred to the under-monitoring market from the regular market until the delisting date of December 29, 2016.
Meanwhile, PSC’s shares declined by a marginal 0.42 per cent to 236 baisas as 73,825 shares changed hands.