DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711210661

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

MONTREAL COMPANY TO BUY ELIZABETH RIVER TERMINALS SALE IS NOT EXPECTED TO AFFECT OPERATIONS.

A Canadian bulk terminal operating company will buy Elizabeth River Terminals from Koninklijke Van Ommeren NV at the end of the year.

Montreal-based Logistec Corp. announced that by Dec. 31 it will acquire the dry-bulk cargo terminal in Chesapeake and a similar terminal in Brunswick, Ga., known as Marine Port Terminals.

The purchase price was not disclosed. Van Ommeren officials could not be reached for comment.

Van Ommeren put Elizabeth River Terminals, located on the Southern Branch at Money Point in Chesapeake, up for sale about a year ago. A local official said then that the Dutch shipping giant made a strategic decision to focus on its liquid-bulk transportation, terminal and storage businesses around the world.

The purchase fits with Logistec's focus on dry-bulk cargo handling at its 24 terminals at ports in eastern Canada, around the Great Lakes and along the U.S. East Coast, said Guy Lequient, Logistec's vice president of finance and development. It operates three facilities in Connecticut and is a partner in a forest products terminal in Baltimore.

Elizabeth River Terminals, which employs about 40 workers, is the port of Hampton Roads' only multi-purpose dry-bulk cargo terminal. It handles about 600,000 tons of dry-bulk commodities a year, including fertilizers, dry chemicals and feed products.

Logistec plans little change in the facility's operations, Lequient said.

``We essentially plan to keep everybody on the payroll,'' said Lequient, with the exception of Cees van de Mortel, Elizabeth River Terminals' president, who will remain with Van Ommeren, Lequient said.

The company will work first to retain and satisfy existing customers before pursuing growth opportunities, Lequient said.

The transaction includes not just the 65-acre terminal facility, but also an adjoining undeveloped 45-acre site that is one of the prime industrial waterfront sites in the port.

A publicly traded company in Canada, Logistec is the largest stevedoring firm and terminal operator in eastern Canada. Last year it reported revenues of about $85 million (U.S. dollars). The two terminals it is purchasing from Van Ommeren generate about $17.5 million a year.

Van Ommeren bought Elizabeth River Terminals in 1986. In recent years, the company has improved the terminal by adding a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and paving the facility. It also built a settlement basin so that runoff from the terminal wouldn't be flushed directly into the river.

The terminal handles on average about three ships a month and two barges a week. Business peaks in winter as the fertilizer industry gears up for the spring season. ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/File color photo

The Elizabeth River Terminals...

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