Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) has taken a substantial financial and operational hit as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic with the German logistics company announcing significant falls on both counts.
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]In particular, HHLA has marked a group operating result (EBIT- earnings before interest and taxes) of €123.6 million (US$145.6 million) in 2020, while in 2019 it has achieved EBIT of €221.2 million (US$260.5 million). In addition, the German company’s container throughput has plummeted by 10.6% in the last year, reaching 6.776 million TEU, while transport volume amounted to 1.536 million TEU, which represents a decrease of 1.9% compared with 2019’s figures.
Similarly, HHLA Group’s revenue declined by 6% to €1.3 billion (US$1.5 billion), while profit after tax and minority interests crashed by 58.8% to €42.6 million (US$50.2 million).
“Regardless of the changing macroeconomic environment, we will decisively continue to pursue our transformation process in order to be able to fulfil our customers’ requirements even more efficiently and develop new growth areas,” commented Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of HHLA’s executive board.
The loss of a Far East service from mid-May 2020 onwards had a further adverse effect on the volume trend, said HHLA in its announcement and added that, decreasing overseas volumes and reductions in feeder traffic in the Baltic region could not be offset by growth in other shipping regions, while the international terminals only showed a moderate decrease of 4.7%.
HHLA noted that the current uncertain conditions around the pandemic make a reliable forecast impossible. However, the Hamburg-based logistics group expects to see a moderate year-on-year increase for the Port Logistics subgroup, both in terms of container throughput and container transport, for the current financial year.
A moderate year-on-year increase is also expected in terms of revenue. After the operating result (EBIT) in the financial year 2020 was burdened by net provisions amounting to approximately €43 million for an efficiency programme in the container segment, EBIT for port logistics in the range of €140 to €165 million (US$165 to US$194 million) is targeted for the current financial year.
At a Group level, HHLA anticipates a moderate increase in revenue and an operating result (EBIT) in the range of €153 to €178 million (US$180 to US$210 million).
In order to further increase productivity in the container and intermodal segments, the group expects capital expenditure to be in the range of €250 to €280 million (US$295 to US$330 million) in 2021, with port will accounting for the major share (€220 to €250 million – US$260 to US$295 million).
Capital expenditure in the container division will be on the implementation of a restructuring and efficiency programme, while the intermodal division on the renewal and expansion of the Group’s own transport and handling capacities.
In the meantime, HHLA has announced it remains committed to its profit-oriented dividend policy, which aims to pay out between 50% and 70% of annual net profit after minority interests in the form of dividends.
