Global Ports Investment has published the group’s operational and financial result for 2017.
The growth of Global Ports’ consolidated marine container throughput accelerated to 11.8% in the second half of 2017, resulting in 6.8% growth for 2017 as a whole.
This acceleration in growth has continued into 2018 with a 23% increase in the consolidated marine container throughput in January-February 2018, outpacing the Russian container market growth of 16% for the same two-month period.
The consolidated marine container throughput made 1,205 thousand TEU in 2017 compared to 1,128 thousand TEU in 2016.
First Container Terminal handled 553.8 thousand TEU, up 15.3% year-on-year, Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company handled 370.8 thousand TEU (+23.1%) and Moby Dik handled 167.6 thousand TEU (+7.8%).
Petrolesport was down 22% to 206.3 thousand TEU, Ust-Luga Container Terminal down 9.8% to 74.1 thousand TEU, and the Finnish terminals down 38.4% to 115.6 thousand TEU.
The group also reported a record 21.9% year-on-year increase in consolidated marine bulk cargo throughput in 2017, which reached an all-time high of 2.7 mn tons.
Ro-ro cargo grew 59.2% year-on-year to 23.9 thousand units, car traffic declined 1% to 95.4 thousand units.
Container traffic via the group’s inland terminal in Yanino made 116.2 thousand TEU, up 1.2% year-on-year, while the other inland terminal, Logistika-Terminal, saw its container throughput decrease 1.4% down to 171.8 thousand TEU. Bulk cargo in Yanino surged 40.6% to 498.6 thousand tons, and in Logistika-Terminal grew 6.7% to 324.1 thousand tons.
The revenue in 2017 remained broadly flat at $330.5 mn (0.3% decline compared to 2016). According to Global Ports, a 5.5% decrease in container revenue was largely offset by the 22.7% growth in non-container revenue. The reduction in container revenue was driven by the 11.5% decline in the revenue per TEU as a result of pricing initiatives introduced at the beginning of the year.
The gross profit increased 25.2% to $182 mn. The adjusted EBITDA decreased 10.1% to $201.6 mn mainly due to the decline in the revenue per TEU and the negative impact of the Russian ruble appreciation on the group’s largely RUB-denominated cost base when translated into US dollars.
The operating loss amounted to $5.3 mn as the gross profit was absorbed by one-off non-monetary items such as impairment, loss from the group’s share of the result in joint ventures and recycling of derivative losses previously recognised through other comprehensive income.
The net loss for 2017 made $53 mn compared to a net profit pf $61.3 mn for 2016. The group’s net debt reduced by a further $81.4 mn compared to 2016. The total debt decreased by $70.2 mn during 2017. Since the NCC Group acquisition at the end of 2013 the total debt was down more than $467 mn.
“The recovery in the Russian container market continues to gain momentum with December volumes at their highest levels since 2014 and with 2018 starting healthily. The combination of acceleration in our container volumes, strong growth in bulk cargo throughput, and strict cost control resulted in increased Adjusted EBITDA and an expansion of Adjusted EBITDA Margin for the Group in the second half of the year”, commented Mikhail Loganov, CEO of Global Ports Management.
“Balance sheet discipline continues to be critical for Global Ports and we remain highly focused on deleveraging. We reduced our net debt by another USD 81.4 million in 2017 and since the NCC acquisition, the Group’s total debt position has been reduced by almost half a billion US dollars”.
“In 2018, we are continuing with our commercial efforts aimed at securing momentum for our container volume growth. Although we currently anticipate that this may result in a single digit decline in our revenue per TEU over the current year, this approach is gaining strong traction as our volume growth in the first two months of the year has outpaced the current level of market growth”.
“Looking forward, we are well placed to benefit from the continued expansion of Russia’s undercontainerised market, supported by real wages growth and recovery in consumer sentiment”, M.Loganov said