Global Ports' adjusted EBITDA grew 6.7% in H1, to $116 mln, above forecast - IFRS report
MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Global Ports' adjusted EBITDA grew 6.7% year-on-year in H1 2019, to $116 million, the company said in its report to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Interfax's consensus forecast had the figure growing by about 4%, to $113 million.
The increase was "mainly due to the growth in throughput and strict cost control," the group said.
Net profit was $36.2 million, compared with a loss the year before. The group last made an IFRS net profit in 2016.
Revenue grew 6.5% (like-for-like), adjusted for the sale of JSC Logistika Terminal. Consolidated revenue increased 3.4%, to $181.2 million. Analysts had predicted that revenue would grow about 1%, to $177 million.
Gross profit grew 5.6%, to $110.5 million, and profit before taxes totaled $55.8 million, compared with a loss the year before. The net debt/adjusted EBITDA ratio fell from 3.6x to 3.5x. Net debt fell $25.2, to $755.2 million.
Capex totaled $5.7 million "and was focused on planned maintenance projects, scheduled upgrades of existing container handling equipment and customer service improvement initiatives."
"The Russian container market grew 4.7% in the first half of 2019 driven by the growth of full container export of 7.7% and supported by growth in full container import of 2.7%, resulting in total Russian container market throughput of 2.54 million TEU," the group noted. "The market has continued to grow since the end of the reporting period: over June-August 2019, container throughput on the Russian container market increased by 5.4% compared to the same period in 2018, bringing the 8 months 2019 market growth to 4.9% [to 714,000 TEU]."
Global Ports Management CEO Vladimir Bychkov was quoted as saying, "Global Ports has delivered a solid performance in the first half. Both the container and non-container segments of our businesses are performing well, resulting in steady growth and enabling us to continue deleveraging.
"We continue to see rapid growth of containerised export. In the first half of 2019, full dry container export exceeded full dry container import by 13% in the Big Port of Saint-Petersburg - an exceptional result in a market that was completely import-driven only a few years ago. We are very excited to see this trend as it reduces volatility in the market, improves capacity utilisation, and opens up additional opportunities for well-equipped large specialised terminals with good railway infrastructure, such as ourselves. Accordingly, in the first half of the year, we have focused on offering our clients excellent productivity at our terminals and unrivalled customer service to ensure that we're well placed to benefit from this trend. These areas will remain our key priorities going forward.
"We approach the second half of the year with cautious optimism. While we see some cooling down in the growth rates of import, we expect to see further growth in full container export, which will provide further support to the market."