By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau Container Port’s operator says operating income for its current financial year to end-June 2025 is “on track” to beat forecasts by 7 percent based on its performance through August 2024.

BISX-listed Arawak Port Development Company (APD), giving investors an insight into the projected outturn for 2024-2025 in its just-released annual report, said both earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and revenues are on course to beat its initial estimates even though container throughput volumes may miss targets.

Referring to the most common container type, twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), APD said: “Nassau Container Port’s TEU volumes as of August 31, 2024, are projected to finish 5 percent below budget. However, total revenues are anticipated to exceed the budget by approximately 2 percent, and EBITDA is on track to be 7 percent above budget, with an EBITDA margin of 55 percent.”

Looking to future opportunities, Dion Bethell, APD’s president and chief financial officer, told shareholders that it is still awaiting word from the Government over the outcome of the bidding process to take over operations at the Marsh Harbour port in Abaco. However, the BISX-listed firm remains interested even though this is not anticipated to be a major revenue earner.

“Considering the project’s potential benefits for Family Island development and nation strengthening, APD submitted a proposal. Even though such a project is not viewed as a significant revenue stream for APD, the Board and Nassau Container Port administration are of one accord in the certainty that our expertise and experience could provide Marsh Harbour with the necessary security plan and framework to pass the all-important ISPS (International Ship and Port Security) audits and assessments. As the year ended, the company was still awaiting a firm word on the results of bidding,” he wrote.

Mr Bethell also provided further details on the ransomware attack that APD suffered in April 2024, and which the company said resulted in only minimal disruption to its operations for around two weeks with no ransom being paid.

“The necessity for promoting a tightly-guarded interface between us, electronic communication, the Internet and the necessity of cloud storage of vital data was starkly evident on April 18, 2024,” he revealed. “We learned that our communication system had been hit by a powerful ransomware attack that had disabled our phones and access to our electronically stored data.

“This breach opened the door to hackers who had been moving in the system for a while bent on disrupting trade. Had they succeeded, the intrusion could have done serious damage to port operation, the all-important supply chain and trade across sectors and the length and breadth of our archipelago.

“Exacerbating the problem were the fears arising from the attack and the need to keep all our constituents motivated. People tend to rely on doing things by traditional processes. Many fear that machinery and software will replace people, often occasioning job loss. One of our top human relations tasks during the year was to increase system safety and to demonstrate that the modern cyber world and people can co-exist beneficially and profitably.”

Outlining how APD responded to the attack, Mr Bethell said: “On the positive side, the attack proved the worth of what I have come to call our port ecosystem - the synergistic array of Board, the executive, management and staff teams. It was agreed at all levels that we would not pay the ransom demand, and we did not.

“The immediate and urgent goal was to quickly notify and get the co-operation of all port partners and stakeholders and organise a mitigation strategy. We carefully managed our messaging so as not to cause a panic. Simultaneously, we marshalled forces for countering and expelling the invaders and, with great urgency, restoring port data and optimal functioning.

“APD’s IT leadership and staff, and our international IT partners, co-operated admirably for the conduct of a forensic investigation to identify the extent of the problem, its entry point and time in support of tailoring the necessary remedy,” he added.

“Additionally, for re-entering the masses of data, we engaged an auxiliary team of young men who were students at the University of The Bahamas in computer science and/ or finance. I can report that all the foregoing did an awesome job, getting everything running in the shortest possible time, averting any irredeemable, harmful effects.”

Michael Maura, APD’s chairman, writing in the same annual report added: “One of the extraordinary challenges of the 2023-2024 reporting period was the launch of a powerful ransomware attack on APD’s information and technology system (IT).

“If this criminal invasion had not been discovered and controlled with admirable leadership, professionalism and teamwork, it could have produced a dangerous disruption of our country’s vital supply chain of food, medicine and other consumables and durable goods as well as the range of construction materials, technology and services.

“I can say with confidence that the timely and successful response to that critical event reflects the unprecedented partnerships from which APD was forged and prospers. APD has since taken necessary steps to further fortify its IT defences to include increased systems of monitoring, penetration testing and training,” he added.

“The Bahamas shipping industry would likely have suffered greatly from such a vicious intrusion before the development of APD and its ever-modernising Nassau Container Port and its Gladstone Freight Terminal inland terminal, which emerged from the infusion of talents, knowledge and experiences contributed by founding partners and, later, by the ready co-operation of port clients.”