Earnings Position

HHLA’s performance data varied widely in the first quarter of 2016. At 1,612 thousand TEU, container throughput fell year on year by 7.7 % (previous year: 1,747 thousand TEU). A further drop in feeder traffic with Baltic Sea ports had a particularly strong impact on our Hamburg terminals. By contrast, transport volumes rose by 2.4 % to 341 thousand TEU (previous year: 333 thousand TEU). This increase, achieved in a highly competitive market, was brought about by the growth in rail transportation.

The HHLA Group’s revenue decreased by 4.1 % to € 284.8 million in the period under review (previous year: € 296.9 million). This was primarily due to a volume-related decline in handling revenue at the Hamburg terminals. The performance of the listed Port Logistics subgroup largely reflected that of the HHLA Group. The subgroup reported a fall in revenue of 4.3 % to € 277.1 million (previous year: € 289.6 million) in its Container, Intermodal and Logistics segments. By contrast, the non-listed Real Estate subgroup was able to raise revenue by 5.8 % to € 9.2 million (previous year: € 8.7 million). The Real Estate subgroup thus accounted for 2.7 % of Group revenue.

The decrease in operating expenses of 3.6 % to € 254.2 million (previous year: € 263.7 million) was slightly less than the fall in revenue. There were highly divergent trends across the different expenditure types. Despite an increase in headcount (+ 2.1 %), personnel expenses were kept almost constant (+ 0.1 %). Both the rise in other operating expenses (+ 3.2 %) and the significant fall in the cost of materials (- 10.8 %) were due in part to the company’s increased use of its own traction fleet in rail transportation. Depreciation and amortisation were down slightly on the previous year (- 2.3 %).

In light of these developments, the operating result (EBIT) decreased by 4.7 % to € 41.0 million in the period under review (previous year: € 43.0 million). The EBIT margin of 14.4 % was on a par with the previous year (previous year: 14.5 %). The significant increase in earnings in the Intermodal segment was largely able to compensate for the strong decline in earnings in the Container segment. The EBIT of the Port Logistics subgroup declined by 4.3 % to € 37.1 million (previous year: € 38.8 million) and thus accounted for 90.6 % of the consolidated operating result in the reporting period (previous year: 90.3 %). In the Real Estate subgroup, EBIT fell slightly to € 3.8 million (previous year: € 4.1 million) as a result of maintenance work. This subgroup generated 9.4 % (previous year: 9.7 %) of the consolidated operating result.

Net expenses from the financial result fell by € 7.2 million, or 52.6 %, to € 6.5 million (previous year: € 13.7 million). This was mainly due to a reduction of € 6.1 million in negative exchange rate effects, which resulted almost entirely from the devaluation of the Ukrainian currency. Interest paid to banks and other lenders also decreased.

Profit after tax and minority interests climbed 44.6 % year on year to € 18.1 million (previous year: € 12.6 million). Earnings per share increased correspondingly by 44.6 % to € 0.25 (previous year: € 0.17). The listed Port Logistics subgroup achieved a 52.9 % rise in earnings per share to € 0.23 (previous year: € 0.15). Earnings per share of the non-listed Real Estate subgroup were up slightly year on year at € 0.79 (previous year: € 0.77). The return on capital employed (ROCE) was down 0.7 pp at 12.5 % (previous year: 13.2 %).