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A Publication of Guidry News Service |
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A Publication of Guidry News Service |
The Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves today voted to approve, with minor amendments, a one-year lease agreement with Gulf Copper & Manufacturing Corporation of Port Arthur to operate a ship yard on the Pelican Island property that was occupied by Todd Shipyard and later by Newpark Shipbuilding, then First Wave Marine. Gulf Copper also has operations in La Porte, Aransas Pass and Corpus Christi. The wharves board voted to table consideration of the lease and development of Pier 19/20 channel-front property. The wharves board also voted to table consideration of a development agreement with Carnival Corporation for improvements to the Front Cruise Terminal Complex, and a request from the Galveston Hotel/Motel Association pending further research. The wharves board voted to direct staff to meet with BNSF Railway Company and return a recommendation on a lease agreement with the company. A resolution regarding Agrilance, LLC's request for the issuance of a series of bonds for port facilities was withdrawn. All other agenda items were approved. Freddie Meyers of the Frost Bank Trust Department updated the wharves board Finance Committee on the port's retirement fund investment portfolio. Listen Download "As you know, the first quarter of 2005 has been very volatile as far as the markets is concerned," Meyers began. "Anytime you have an environment of rising inflation, rising interest rates and rising oil prices, the market is going to have some problems." Meyers said the port's retirement portfolio has had a gain of 8.57 percent, compared to the Standard and Poor's 500 index of 6.67 percent. For a three-year period, the annualized return for the pension fund as been 6.26 percent and the S&P 500 Index had an annualized return of 2.75 percent; and for the five-year period, the port's fund had an annualized return of 6.22 percent compared to the S&P return of a negative 3.16 percent. "So you can see that over the last five years this market has been pretty sloppy, and to have a positive return over that time frame is a pretty good deal for you all," Meyers said. "It shows you how conservatively Shrub manages this portfolio." Meyers, reported that Shrub Kempner, who is out of town, told him that he expects Alan Greenspan to raise the Fed Funds Rate to 3.25 percent to 3.5 percent, and then back off. "He believes that you are going to see positive performance in the latter part of the year," Meyers said. "Let's hope the next quarter is better." Hyperlinks will work if this document is read Online
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