KUALA LUMPUR (May 3): Port operator Westports Holdings Bhd saw its share price decline as much as 3.54% to RM3.81 this morning on news it is bidding for the contract to build Colombo Port's East Container Terminal in Sri Lanka.

As at 11:25am, the counter regained some ground to trade at RM3.83, still down 12 sen or 3.04%, and it was the second biggest loser across the local market.

On Monday, Sri Lanka's EconomyNext reported that Westports is working in a consortium of six companies led by Sri Lanka's Hayleys PLC to jointly bid for the said contract.

The winner of the competitive tender, which was called last year, is expected to be announced by end-May.

It was reported that the process of selecting the winner was stalled after Sri Lanka changed the original bidding conditions, asking each consortium to include an Indian partner.

Apart from Westports and Hayleys, the other consortium members are Mitsui Corp, Mitsubishi Logistics, NYK, and Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd.

Other consortiums bidding for the project include that comprising APM Terminals BV, Sri Lanka's John Keells Holdings, Maersk Line and Container Corp of India, as well as the consortium of Port of Singapore Authority, Pacific International Lines, India's Shapporji Pallonji and Sri Lanka's Aitken Spence Group.

The terminal project is estimated to cost between US$550 million (RM2.37 billion) and US$600 million, according to reports.

However, a shipping analyst told theedgemarkets.com that investors may have used this news as an excuse to offload Westports shares.

"Investors may have used this as an excuse to sell after being disappointed by Westports' first quarter ended Mar 31, 2017 results, when [its] container throughput growth was about 1%, as compared to the usual 8% to 10% growth before," he shared.

However, the analyst, who declined to be named, stressed that this was merely his own inference and the actual reason behind the selldown today is yet to be known.