Global Ports’ Performance Down amid Economic Downturn in Russia

Tough market conditions coupled with macro-economic backdrop in Russia have seen a decline of Global Ports Investments PLC’s throughput by 32% year on year to 834 thousand TEU in the first six months of 2015.

Revenue was 25.2% lower than in the first half of 2014 at USD 214.3 million, mainly driven by lower container throughput and a decline in other revenues, whereas the company’s operating profit adjusted for impairment declined 4.1% year on year to USD 120.9 million in the first half of 2015.  Net profit adjusted for impairment grew by 8.9% or USD 5.9 million to USD 72.1 million compared to USD 66.2 million in the first six months of 2014.

Tiemen Meester, Chairman of Global Ports, commented: “The macro-economic backdrop in Russia remained challenging throughout the first half of 2015 affecting consumer demand. Although this had a strong impact on imports, we have been seeing growth in containerized exports since 2013, which is a promising development.

“During the six-month period, we have worked hard to mitigate the impact of the tough market conditions on our business. We have continued to focus on efficiency and cost cutting while successfully marketing our premium terminal services to our clients. Through these activities, we have expanded our EBITDA margin to 72% and limited the decline in Free Cash Flow to 11%, ensuring we continue to generate strong cash flow.

This has again been principally allocated to servicing debt as deleveraging remains a key priority for the Group. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we expect that the market will remain difficult.”

Global Ports operates five container terminals in Russia (Petrolesport, First Container Terminal, Ust-Luga Container Terminal4 and Moby Dik5 in the Russian Baltics, and Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company in the Russian Far East) and two container terminals in Finland6 (Multi-Link Terminals Helsinki and Multi-Link Terminals Kotka).