Earnings Position

The economic development of HHLA in the first half of 2017 was very encouraging. HHLA saw a strong increase of 11.8 % in container throughput in the first half of the year, taking it to 3,586 thousand TEU (previous year: 3,209 thousand TEU). This was attributable to a recovery in traffic to and from Asia and feeder volumes for the Baltic Sea ports, coupled with market share gains resulting from the reorganisation of shipping alliances.

Transport volumes increased significantly by 7.2 % to 744 thousand TEU (previous year: 694 thousand TEU) due to growth in both rail and road transport.

Revenue for the HHLA Group amounted to € 622.8 million in the reporting period and was thus 8.6 % up on the prior-year figure (previous year: € 573.5 million). This rise stems primarily from developments in throughput and transport volumes.

In its Container, Intermodal and Logistics segments, the listed Port Logistics subgroup generated revenue of € 607.3 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 557.8 million). This increase almost matched the trend for the Group as a whole. At € 18.7 million, revenue at the non-listed Real Estate subgroup was unchanged from the previous year: € 18.7 million).

As in the same period last year, changes in inventories of € 0.3 million (previous year: € 0.9 million) had no noticeable impact on consolidated profit. Own work capitalised amounted to € 2.8 million (previous year: € 3.5 million).

Other operating income amounted to € 22.0 million (previous year: € 16.1 million).

Operating expenses rose by 4.2 % in total to € 549.1 million. This increase was mainly attributable to a rise in the cost of materials due to higher volumes.

The 9.5 % increase in cost of materials to € 184.6 million during the reporting period (previous year: € 168.6 million). The cost of materials ratio edged up slightly to 29.6 % (previous year: 29.4 %).

There was a slight year-on-year increase of 1.6 % in personnel expenses, taking the figure to € 227.5 million (previous year: € 224.0 million). The discontinuation of project and contract logistics activities in the previous year was offset in the reporting period by union wage increases, greater use of external staff from Gesamthafenbetriebs-Gesellschaft (GHB) at the Hamburg terminals and growth in the workforce due to the expansion of the rail transport business. The marked decline in the personnel expenses ratio to 36.5 % (previous year: 39.1 %) was primarily attributable to one-off expenses arising from the restructuring of project and contract logistics in the previous year.

Other operating expenses rose slightly by 2.3 % in the reporting period to € 77.3 million (previous year: € 75.6 million). The company succeeded in reducing the ratio of expenses to revenue from 13.2 % in the previous year to 12.4 %.

Due in particular to one-off expenses of € 14.9 million in connection with the restructuring of project and contract logistics in the previous year and the encouraging increase in volumes, the operating result before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose strongly by 26.0 % to € 158.5 million (previous year: € 125.8 million). The EBITDA margin increased to 25.5 % in the reporting period (previous year: 21.9 %).

The expansion of the rail transport business led to a slight increase of 1.3 % in depreciation and amortisation to € 59.7 million (previous year: € 58.9 million) in connection with the expansion of the rail transport business. However, its ratio to revenue fell to 9.6 % (previous year: € 10.3 %).

At Group level, the operating result (EBIT) improved by 47.8 % to € 98.8 million (previous year: € 66.9 million incl. one-off expenses of € 14.9 million for restructuring). The EBIT margin rose to 15.9 % (previous year: 11.7 %). The Port Logistics subgroup generated EBIT of € 90.6 million (previous year: € 58.8 million incl. one-off expenses for restructuring). Meanwhile, the Real Estate subgroup’s EBIT was marginally up on the previous year at € 8.0 million (previous year: € 7.9 million).

Net expenses from the financial result fell by € 5.1 million to € 5.3 million (previous year: € 10.4 million). This was partly due to a positive change in exchange rate effects of € 2.7 million resulting mainly from the valuation of the Ukrainian currency. Interest paid to banks and other lenders also decreased.

At 24.8 %, the Group’s effective tax rate was below the prior-year figure (previous year: 27.9 %). This was largely due to the inclusion of one-off effects in the calculation of the tax rate for the Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG tax entity in both the current and the previous year, along with the consideration of factors relating to the foreign subsidiaries which reduced the tax rate.

Profit after tax increased by 72.6 %, from € 40.8 million to € 70.3 million. There was a disproportionately strong year-on-year increase in profit after tax and minority interests of 103.9 % to € 52.6 million (previous year: € 25.8 million). This was due in part to one-off expenses in the Logistics segment last year pertaining to a company owned entirely by HHLA. At € 0.72, earnings per share were also up 103.9 % on the prior-year figure of € 0.35. The listed Port Logistics subgroup achieved a 125.9 % increase in earnings per share to € 0.69 (previous year: € 0.30). Earnings per share at the non-listed Real Estate subgroup were on a par with the previous year at € 1.69 (previous year: € 1.68). The return on capital employed (ROCE) rose by 4.8 percentage points to 14.9 % (previous year: 10.1 %).