Earnings position

Container throughput at HHLA’s container terminals rose year-on-year by 7.9 % to 3,172 thousand TEU (previous year: 2,940 thousand TEU). At the Hamburg container terminals, growth was recorded particularly in volumes with the Far East shipping region, especially China, in volumes with other European seaports and in feeder traffic volumes. Throughput volumes for the North America and Middle East shipping regions declined. The strong increase at the international terminals was largely due to volume growth at PLT Italy as well as the resumption of seaborne handling at Container Terminal Odessa (CTO) in the third quarter of 2024.

Container transport increased by 19.6 % to 997 thousand TEU (previous year: 833 thousand TEU). Rail transport benefited from a strong rise in traffic to the North German and Adriatic seaports as well as in the German-speaking region. Moreover, the transport volumes of Roland Spedition in the previous year were only included from June onwards. There was also a strong increase in road transport during the reporting period.

The HHLA Group’s revenue rose by 16.3 % to € 884.5 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 760.3 million). In addition to the positive trend in container throughput and container transport, the increase in average revenue in the Container segment also had an impact. Revenues also benefited from a favourable modal split, as well as high storage fees at the container terminals due to temporary increases in dwell times.

The listed Port Logistics subgroup generated revenue of € 865.7 million (previous year: € 742.5 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 € 23.4 million (previous year: € 23.0 million).

In the reporting period, changes in inventories reached € - 2.7 million (previous year: € 2.2 million) and own work capitalised amounted to € 4.2 million (previous year: € 4.6 million).

Other operating income increased by 24.0 % to € 30.3 million (previous year: € 24.4 million). The rise was due to income recognised as part of the restructuring of O’Swaldkai, mainly caused by the extension of the lease and the transfer of real estate.

Operating expenses increased by 14.2 % to € 836.9 million (previous year: € 732.7 million). There was a strong rise in other operating expenses, as well as in the cost of materials and personnel expenses, while depreciation and amortisation rose only slightly.

The cost of materials rose by 17.3 % to € 302.9 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 258.2 million). This was due to the improved performance data, particularly in the material-intensive container transport business. The cost of materials ratio rose to 34.2 % (previous year: 34.0 %).

There was a strong year-on-year increase of 13.2 % in personnel expenses to € 339.9 million (previous year: € 300.2 million). The improvement in performance data, a rise in headcount due to the expansion of rail transport business, the effects of union wage rate rises and a partial reversal of the restructuring provision in the previous year were the principal causes. The personnel expense ratio fell to 38.4 % (previous year: 39.5 %).

Other operating expenses rose significantly by 20.2 % to € 108.3 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 90.1 million). This was mainly due to higher expenses for consultancy, property taxes in the real estate business and maintenance. The ratio of expenses to revenue rose to 12.2 % (previous year: 11.9 %).

The operating result before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 15.5 % to € 165.2 million (previous year: € 143.1 million). The main cause was the strong improvement in performance data. The EBITDA margin decreased to 18.7 % (previous year: 18.8 %).

Within depreciation and amortisation, there was a slight increase of 2.0 % to € 85.9 million (previous year: € 84.2 million). The ratio to revenue decreased to 9.7 % (previous year: 11.1 %).

There was an increase in the operating result (EBIT) of € 20.5 million, or 34.8 %, to € 79.4 million during the reporting period (previous year: € 58.9 million). The EBIT margin amounted to 9.0 % (previous year: 7.7 %). In the Port Logistics subgroup, EBIT rose by 40.1 % to € 72.4 million (previous year: € 51.7 million). In the Real Estate subgroup, EBIT decreased by 3.4 % to € 6.7 million (previous year: € 7.0 million).

Net expenses from financial income rose by € 6.0 million, or 26.5 %, to € 28.5 million (previous year: € 22.5 million).

At 36.8 %, the Group’s effective tax rate was above the prior-year figure of 35.7 %. The increase in the tax rate was partly attributable to the normalisation of earnings, particularly at the Group’s domestic companies, with a corresponding tax expense.

Profit after tax increased by 37.4 % from € 23.4 million to € 32.1 million. There was a year-on-year increase in profit after tax and non-controlling interests to €19.1 million (previous year: € 13.2 million). Earnings per share amounted to € 0.25 (previous year: € 0.18). Earnings per share for the listed Port Logistics subgroup were € 0.21 (previous year: € 0.12). Earnings per share of the non-listed Real Estate subgroup were down year-on-year at € 1.40 (previous year: € 1.61). The return on capital employed (ROCE) amounted to 6.0 % (previous year: 4.8 %).