Merger with UASC Drives Hapag-Lloyd’s Profit Surge

Hapag-Lloyd has started to reap fruit from its merger with the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) based on the preliminary figures for the full year 2017.

News ID: 78689

Date: 02 March 2018 - 12:23

According to MANA, Namely, a major jump has been reported in the company’s operating result (EBIT) for the full year, reaching EUR 411 million (USD 502 million) against EUR 126 million reported a year earlier.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) climbed up to EUR 1.055 billion, against EUR 607 million posted for 2016. The EBITDA margin grew to 10.6 pct compared to 7.9 pct in 2016, the company said.

Aside from UASC merger, the better financial performance was also ascribed to a positive development of the worldwide container transport volume and a slight recovery of freight rates.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, Hapag-Lloyd’s EBITDA increased to EUR 333 million from EUR 226 million reported in Q4 in 2016 and EUR 42 million higher EBIT year-on-year.

Improved freight rates contributed to a revenue increase, which came at EUR 10.0 billion for the full year, compared to EUR 7.7 billion in 2016.

At the same time, Hapag-Lloyd recorded a significant volume increase of 29 pct totaling to 9.8 million TEU.

The German liner, which is now the fifth-largest liner shipping company in the world, also has sound equity and liquidity reserves amounting to EUR 6.1 billion and EUR 1.1 billion respectively.

Hapag-Lloyd has a fleet of 215 container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.6 million TEU.