Earnings position

Container throughput at HHLA’s container terminals rose year-on-year by 2.2 % to 2,940 thousand TEU (previous year: 2,876 thousand TEU). At the Hamburg container terminals, the main growth was in overseas traffic for the shipping regions North, South and Central America and in traffic with other European seaports as a consequence of temporary route changes prompted by the military conflict in the Red Sea. There was also a sharp rise in volumes at the multifunctional terminal HHLA TK Estonia.

Container transport rose slightly by 1.8 % to 833 thousand TEU (previous year: 819 thousand TEU). There was a moderate increase in rail traffic, which benefited from a sharp rise in traffic in the German-speaking region, as well as from the acquisition of a majority stake in Roland Spedition GmbH in the second quarter of 2024. By contrast, road traffic volumes fell sharply.

The HHLA Group’s revenue climbed by 4.6 % to € 760.3 million during the reporting period (previous year: € 727.1 million). In addition to a positive effect from the slight rise in container throughput and container transport, this was mainly attributable to the increase in storage fees at the Hamburg container terminals due to temporarily longer dwell times.

The listed Port Logistics subgroup generated revenue of € 742.5 million (previous year: € 707.7 million) in the reporting period. This increase was largely in line with the trend for the Group as a whole. The non-listed Real Estate subgroup recorded revenue of € 23.0 million (previous year: € 23.4 million).

In the reporting period, changes in inventories reached € 2.2 million (previous year: € 2.6 million) and own work capitalised amounted to € 4.6 million (previous year: € 3.1 million).

Other operating income decreased by 25.8 % to € 24.4 million (previous year: € 32.9 million). In the previous year, other operating income also included income from the reversal of other liabilities for ship delays at the Hamburg container terminals in 2022.

Operating expenses increased by 2.4 % to € 732.7 million  (previous year: € 715.4 million ). A fall in other operating expenses and depreciation and amortisation partly offset the rise in personnel expenses and cost of materials.

In the reporting period, the cost of materials rose by 3.7 % to € 258.2 million (previous year: €248.9 million). Alongside improved performance data and the newly consolidated companies, the rise was also attributable to increased electricity expenses. The cost of materials ratio fell to 34.0 % (previous year: 34.2 %).

There was a significant year-on-year increase of 7.3 % in personnel expenses to € 300.2 million (previous year: € 279.7 million). In addition to an increase in headcount due to the expansion of rail transport business, this was mainly due to the effects of increased union wage rates and the growth in business. A partial reversal of the restructuring provision had a positive effect. The personnel expenses ratio rose to 39.5 % (previous year: 38.5 %).

Other operating expenses declined significantly by 8.2 % to € 90.1 million (previous year: €98.2 million) in the reporting period. This was due to a decrease in maintenance expenses, in particular at the Hamburg container terminals. The ratio of expenses to revenue fell to 11.9 % (previous year: 13.5 %).

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2.9 % to € 143.1 million (previous year: € 139.0 million). The main contributing factors were higher storage fees at the Hamburg container terminals and the growth in volumes. The EBITDA margin decreased to 18.8 % (previous year: 19.1 %).

Within depreciation and amortisation, there was a moderate decrease of 5.0 % to € 84.2 million (previous year: € 88.6 million) in connection with the remeasurement of the useful economic life of certain assets in the asset class “Technical equipment and machinery”. The share as a percentage of revenue decreased to 11.1 % (previous year: 12.2 %).

There was an increase in the operating result (EBIT) of € 8.5 million, or 16.8 %, to € 58.9 million during the reporting period (previous year: € 50.4 million). The EBIT margin amounted to 7.7 % (previous year: 6.9 %). In the Port Logistics subgroup, EBIT rose by 27.5 % to € 51.7 million (previous year: € 40.5 million). In the Real Estate subgroup, EBIT decreased by 27.7 % to € 7.0 million (previous year: € 9.7 million).

Net expenses from financial income rose by € 2.0 million, or 9.7 %, to € 22.5 million (previous year: € 20.5 million).

At 35.7 %, the Group’s effective tax rate was lower than the prior-year figure (previous year: 39.1 %). The decrease in the tax rate is partly attributable to the normalisation of earnings, particularly at domestic affiliates, with a corresponding tax expense.

Profit after tax increased by 28.6 % from € 18.2 million to € 23.4 million. There was a year-on-year rise in profit after tax and non-controlling interests to €13.2 million (previous year: € 8.2 million). Earnings per share amounted to € 0.18 (previous year: € 0.11). Earnings per share for the listed Port Logistics subgroup were € 0.12 (previous year: € 0.04). Earnings per share of the non-listed Real Estate subgroup were down year-on-year at € 1.61 (previous year: € 2.03). The return on capital employed (ROCE) amounted to 4.8 % (previous year: 4.4 %).