Financial News

Good earnings in the 2011 first quarter – Rising oil price, weak US-dollar and increasing competition making current business more difficult

In the traditionally weak first quarter Hapag-Lloyd managed to boost revenues by comparison with the same period of the previous year by 16.5 percent to 1.483 million euros. The main reason for this achievement was a ten percent rise to 1,563 USD/TEU in the average freight rate. Transport volume was two percent up on the 2010 first quarter at 1.2 million TEU. Active yield management enabled Hapag-Lloyd to concentrate successfully on profitable cargo, foregoing transports of inferior price quality.
Adjusted Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (adjusted EBIT) in the first quarter totalled 16.1 million euros, an improvement of 9.4 million euros on the previous year. Operative cash flow rose by 16 million euros to 34.5 million euros.
“Given the prevailing conditions, we achieved a good result in the first quarter. Nevertheless, the rise in the oil price, the weak US-dollar and growing competition are making business more difficult. Our aim must be to see that the additional external challenges are covered by appropriate rate increases,” commented Michael Behrendt, Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG, on the 2011 first quarter results presented today.
Total transport volume in the first quarter rose by two percent to 1.2 million TEU. Here developments varied on the different trade routes. The Atlantic more or less reached the previous year’s level with a volume of 273,000 (Q1 2010: 276,000) TEU. In the trades with Latin America, with 265,000 TEU we managed to increase the previous year’s volume by 6.5 percent. On the Far East routes, Hapag-Lloyd rejected transport contracts with lower price quality, so that volume was down from 284,000 TEU to 260,000 TEU. The Transpacific reported a positive trend, volume during the period rising from 238,000 TEU to 266,000 TEU. The same applied to Australasia, where Hapag-Lloyd boosted volume by 6.1 percent to 134,000 TEU. At 1,563 US dollars per TEU, the average freight rate was 9.9 percent higher than the comparable figure for the previous year.
The increased volumes, but above all the improved rates, led to revenues of 1.483 million euros, a 16.5 percent gain on the same period of the previous year. At 16.1 million euros,
Adjusted Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (adjusted EBIT) were also above the previous year’s level (6.7 million euros).
Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) in the period under review totalled 12.3 million euros (Q1 2010: 18.4 million euros). After deduction of interest payments and taxes, a group result of -22.1 million euros remained for Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG. In the first quarter the cash flow on current operations rose by 16.1 million euros to 34.5 million euros in 2011 (previous year: 18.4 million euros) and was therefore well above the previous year.
By comparison with 31 December 2010 the net financial position improved by 46 million euros to -1.080 million euros. In addition, Hapag-Lloyd repaid a shareholder’s loan totalling 161.7 million euros to TUI on 8 April. As at 31 March 2011, equity of Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG totalled 3.369 million euros. Equity ratio rose slightly from 52.4 to 53.3 percent.
As from 31 March 2011, Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG has held all the shares in Hapag-Lloyd AG, which conducts the operating activities. The majority shareholder is the “Albert Ballin” Consortium, which currently holds 50.2 percent of the shares, the rest being with TUI AG. With effect from 31 May 2011, the “Albert Ballin” Consortium will increase its stake in Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG by 11.3 percent to 61.6 percent, with TUI AG’s stake being correspondingly reduced to 38.4 percent.
On 31 March 2011 the total number of staff employed by Hapag-Lloyd Group was 6,889.