ICT. ICTSI Buys Back Shares While Borrowing US$1 Billion for Expansion

Highlights

• ICTSI bought back more of its own shares while foreign investors sold and the stock fell 7.6% over the past month.
• The repurchases run alongside a US$1 billion loan from BDO, a dollar-denominated borrowing worth tens of billions of pesos that funds global terminal expansion.
• Vini Research Desk rates ICT a Buy, ~17% upside to our ₱1007.50 fair value.

The Setup

Following the BDO loan we covered on Sept. 26, ICTSI has disclosed fresh share buy-back transactions, made during a stretch of net foreign selling. ICT last traded at ₱860 on Oct. 2 on volume of 1,869,380 shares, for a market cap of about ₱1.80 trillion. On the operating side, the group's Croatia unit passed a cumulative 4 million TEUs. ICT has rallied 69% from its 52-week low of ₱508.00 on Oct. 6, 2025, but sits below its ₱1,027 high of July 20, 2026. Our momentum read on ICT is Bullish.

Source: PSE disclosure

Our Read

ICTSI is retiring equity with one hand while adding US$1 billion of BDO debt with the other, a deliberate shift of the capital structure toward borrowing. The loan is in dollars, the same currency most of its terminal revenue is earned in, so a commitment of that peso size is serviced by matching cash flows rather than exposed to peso weakness. Buying stock after a 7.6% monthly pullback signals management reads the slide as rate-driven macro pressure, not a weakening port business. With a 50.90% public float, steady repurchases also narrow tradable supply while foreign outflows run their course. The takeaway is that management judges its own shares a better use of cash than holding it, even while it borrows to grow.

Vini Research Desk rates ICT a Buy, seeing about 17% upside to our fair value of ₱1007.50. Retiring shares while funding new terminals lifts each remaining holder's claim on future earnings, supporting dividend growth and capital appreciation for holders of the Passive Income Plan and Smart Momentum Quant Plan.

What We're Watching

• Shares repurchased and average price in the next buy-back disclosures
• BDO loan drawdowns into new terminal capacity in upcoming quarterly results
• A reversal in net foreign selling