Paris-listed Bolloré Group, which holds 21 port concessions worldwide and operates 14 container terminals in Africa, announced a 2 percent drop in revenue for 2015 to $12.2 billion.

The decline was due to a 20 percent drop in revenue at the company’s oil logistics segment to $2.5 billion caused by the low price of oil. The transportation and logistics segment performed well, with revenue rising 4 percent to $6.8 billion, boosted by the addition of $410 million from currency fluctuations.

Growth in container terminal volumes and higher freight forwarding volumes on Asia-America, America-Africa and Europe-America routes had a positive effect on the transportation and logistics segment, although revenue was negatively impacted by a slowdown in mining and petroleum activities in Nigeria, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Angola.

Revenue in the fourth quarter from the transport and logistics segment grew by 4 percent to $1.8 billion while the oil logistics segment booked $567 million, a fall of 32 percent.

Complete 2015 financial results will be released by the company later this week.

Bolloré Africa Logistics is one of the largest transport and logistics operators in Africa with a network of 250 subsidiaries and 24,000 employees. It operates 14 container terminals through public-private partnership arrangements including Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire; Douala in Cameroon; Tema in Ghana; Lagos-Tincan in Nigeria; Libreville Owendo in Gabon; Pointe-Noire in Congo; Cotonou in Benin; Freetown in Sierra Leone and Lomé in Togo.

Bolloré Africa Logistics acts as a shipping agent in many African ports and provides storage and handles administration and customs clearance for customers. It operates rail networks in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso and has a dense network of agencies in inland countries.

Bolloré was recently selected to build and operate a new $424 million port close to Dili, capital of Timor-Leste. The project involves construction of a container and general handling cargo port on the southwest side of Tibar Bay, around 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) west of Dili.

The port will consist of a 630-meter (2,066) wharf with a 15-meter draft and a 24-hectare (59 acres) yard. It will have an annual container throughput capacity of 350,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units and will be capable of handling vessels with capacities of 7,500 TEUs.

The government is thought to be contributing $346 million toward the project with Bolloré Group contributing the remaining $79 million. The public-private partnership deal is for a 30-year term on a build-operate-transfer basis and the government will receive royalties, fees and taxes from the operation of the port during the term.

The new port will replace Timor-Leste’s only existing international seaport, Dili Port, a small facility originally built forbreakbulk operations with a wharf length of 285 meters and an alongside depth of just seven meters.

Timor-Leste is a post-conflict economy classed as lower middle income by the World Bank. It has $10 billion in sustainably managed funds from its oil reserves, which it is using to rebuild its economy and GDP has been growing steadily in recent years. The country grew by 6.2 percent in 2015 and is projected by the Asian Development Bank to grow by 6.6 percent in 2016.

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