Global Ports Investments PLC has published its operational results its interim condensed consolidated financial information (unaudited) for the six month period ended 30 June 2018.
The Group’s consolidated marine container throughput increased 15.9% to 681 thousand TEU outpacing the growth of the Russian container market, which was up 12% year-on-year.
The consolidated marine bulk throughput in the first half of 2018 was up 21.6% year-on-year to 1.6 mn tons.
The Group’s revenue increased by 7.9% to $175.3 mn. According to the company, the growth in consolidated container revenue was driven by the 15.9% increase in consolidated marine container throughput. This was partially offset by an 11.2% decline in revenue per TEU. Only a low single digit percentage of the reduction in revenue per TEU was attributable to change in tariffs, and the remainder is largely attributable to lower share of imports and the change in customer and service mix.
Gross profit increased by 26.8% to $104.7 mn and adjusted EBITDA grew by 11.8% to $108.7 million.
Operating profit in the first half of 2018 stood at $90.2 mn, 6.4-fold higher than in the first half of 2017. This substantial increase was driven both by the growth in gross profit and the fact that 1H 2017 was negatively impacted by one-off non-cash items of $11.4 mn.
Net loss for the first half of 2018 made $3.3 mn decreasing 3.6-fold year-on-year.
The Group’s capital expenditure on a cash basis was $13.5 mn in the first half of 2018, in line with the Group’s mid-term guidance of $25-35 mn per annum. Capital expenditure was focused on planned maintenance projects, the scheduled upgrade of existing container handling equipment and coal handling equipment at VSC as well as environmental protection measures related to coal handling.
The Group’s net debt was reduced by a further $38.5 mn over the period with net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA decreasing to 3.9x* as of 30 June 2018 from 4.3x* as at the end of 2017.
Vladimir Bychkov, CEO of Global Ports Management, commented: “During the first six months of 2018, I am pleased to report that Global Ports’ container volume growth has outpaced the double digit growth of the Russian container market. This strong performance, coupled with the substantial 25.6% increase in non-container cargo handling revenue, has resulted in healthy revenue growth for the Group. These results demonstrate that our strategy to better utilise our assets is proving highly successful with non-container revenue now accounting for more than a quarter of the Group’s consolidated revenue”.
“Over the period we have remained focused on cost control, which has supported an increase in both Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin. We generated strong free cash flow and continued to deleverage reducing Net Debt to Adjusted EBITDA to 3.9x, its lowest level since 2015”.
“In the current macroeconomic and competitive environment we will remain focused on driving operational excellence as well as expanding cargo volumes across the Group. We will also carefully consider potential organic growth opportunities in bulk cargo to further improve the utilisation of our asset base”.
“My core priority as CEO is to leverage the extensive experience and deep industry knowledge of the management team and our co-controlling shareholders as we seek to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the under-containerised Russian market.”