Despite the sharp rise in fuel prices, higher charter rates for ships and additional mooring costs in ports, CEO Rolf Habben Jansen expects “a very strong earnings development in the first half of 2022”.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf The drastic increase in freight rates at sea helped Germany’s largest shipping company, Hapag-Lloyd, achieve record results last year. As the listed Hamburg company announced on Thursday, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased six-fold to 8.1 billion euros, after Hapag-Lloyd had reported just 1.3 billion the year before. At 8.1 billion euros, the net result was even nine times higher than in 2020.
For the logistics group, which has had low earnings for years, this means a sharp trend reversal. In the year before Corona, the shipping company had earned just 0.2 billion euros net, and in 2018 it even made a loss of 0.2 billion euros. The amazing thing about it: The transport volume remained almost unchanged in 2021 at 11.8 million standard containers, but the average freight rates almost doubled.
“We can look back on an extraordinarily successful year in which we invested heavily in modern ships and new containers,” said CEO Rolf Habben Jansen on Thursday. In addition, the financial and asset situation has been significantly strengthened. After the figures were announced, the shares rose by almost four percent.
The Hamburg-based company, which operates 253 ships worldwide and is one of the five largest container shipping companies, ran into considerable debt a few years ago when it took over its Arab competitor UASC. Strong earnings have now enabled Habben Jansen to turn that debt into €2.2 billion in net cash, after nearly six times operating profit in 2017.
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In the meantime there have also been smaller acquisitions again. Hapag-Lloyd announced on Thursday that it intends to take over the shipping company Deutsche Afrika- Linien (DAL) with 150 employees. As with the shipping company Nile Dutch, which was acquired last year, this step is intended to strengthen business in the direction of Africa.
Hapag-Lloyd wants to increase dividend tenfold
The year-long fears of the shareholders, which include the Hanseatic city of Hamburg in addition to the billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne and the Chilean conglomerate CSAV, are to be rewarded at the upcoming general meeting. The Supervisory Board and Executive Board have proposed increasing the dividend tenfold from the last EUR 3.50 to EUR 35.
Despite the sharp rise in fuel prices, higher charter rates for ships and additional mooring costs in the ports, CEO Habben Jansen expects “a very strong earnings development in the first half of 2022”. For the second half of the year, on the other hand, he sees an easing of the supply bottlenecks at sea.
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In total, Hapag-Lloyd therefore expects an operating result of between 10.7 and 12.4 billion euros for 2022 – after 8.1 billion euros in the past year. EBIT will also range from EUR 8.9 to 10.7 billion.
Against the background of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the current developments in Ukraine, however, the forecast is subject to considerable uncertainty. “The 2022 financial year has started successfully for us, but there is still no significant relaxation in the disrupted supply chains.
More: Why Klaus-Michael Kühne is joining Lufthansa as a major shareholder