Business forecast

Within the Port Logistics and Real Estate subgroups, HHLA’s actual economic development in the first nine months of 2023 was largely in line with the forecast published in the combined management report for 2022, which, at the time of preparing the annual report, was subject to considerable uncertainty due to geopolitical tensions and their impact on inflation and economic sanctions. In those markets of importance to the Port Logistics subgroup, the post-pandemic economic recovery in the current financial year has been weaker than forecast by leading economic institutes at the beginning of the year. HHLA's business performance reflects market sentiment: the strong decline in volumes in the first half of 2023 due to the macreconomic situation abated in the third quarter in the Container segment, but continued to be challenging for container transport.

Against the background of this development, a significant year-on-year decrease in container throughput continues to be expected for the Port Logistics subgroup. However, a moderate decrease compared with 2022 is anticipated for container transport (previously: on a par with the previous year).

A significant decrease in revenue continues to be expected. This development is the result of a strong volume-related decline in revenue of the Container segment and cannot be offset by a significant increase in revenue of the Intermodal segment.

Expectations for the operating result (EBIT) continue to range from € 100 million to € 120 million, although an operating result at the lower end of this range is now regarded as probable. Within this range, a strong year-on-year decrease is still expected for the Container segment and, due to the anticipated fall in transport volumes, a moderate year-on-year decrease (previously: slight decrease) is now expected for the Intermodal segment in their respective segment EBIT results.

For the Real Estate subgroup, revenue is still expected to remain at the prior-year level with a significant decline in the operating result (EBIT).

Overall, a significant decrease in revenue is forecast at Group level. The operating result (EBIT) is still expected to be between € 115 million and € 135 million.

In order to enhance efficiency at the Port of Hamburg, expand the foreign terminals and increase the company’s own transport and handling capacities for rail-bound transport, capital expenditure in the first nine months has already exceeded original expectations. As a result, capital expenditure at Group level for the 2023 financial year is now expected to be in the range of € 270 million to € 320 million (previously: in the range of € 250 million to € 300 million). With anticipated investments of € 240 million to € 290 million, the Port Logistics subgroup will account for the majority of this expenditure.

Hamburg, 2 November 2023

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft

The Executive Board

Angela Titzrath

Jens Hansen

Torben Seebold