Earnings position
In the first nine months of 2025, container throughput at the HHLA container terminals rose year-on-year by 6.7 % to 4,798 thousand TEU (previous year: 4,496 thousand TEU). At the Hamburg container terminals, volume growth was recorded for the Far East, South America and Africa, as well as for feeder traffic.
Throughput volumes at the international container terminals rose strongly during the reporting period. All international terminals contributed to this trend, particularly the terminals at Trieste and Odessa. Seaborne handling at Container Terminal Odessa (CTO) was resumed in the third quarter of 2024.
Container transport increased strongly by 13.6 % to 1,501 thousand TEU (previous year: 1,321 thousand TEU). There was strong growth in both rail and road transport. The strong increase in rail transport was largely due to traffic with the North German and Adriatic seaports, as well as traffic within the German-speaking countries. Moreover, last year’s figures only included transport volumes of Roland Spedition from June onwards.
The HHLA Group’s revenue rose by 12.5 % to € 1,331.4 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 1,182.9 million). This strong increase was largely due to significantly higher performance data. In the Container segment, there was also a positive effect from high storage fees at the container terminals in Hamburg and Trieste. In the Intermodal segment, regular price adjustments also contributed to the increase.
The listed Port Logistics subgroup achieved a strong rise in revenue to € 1,303.5 million (previous year: € 1,155.9 million) in the reporting period. Revenue of the non-listed Real Estate subgroup amounted to € 34.8 million (previous year: € 34.3 million).
Other operating income increased by 23.5 % to € 45.1 million (previous year: € 36.5 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 rose by 11.3 % to € 1,262.6 million (previous year: € 1,134.5 million). While depreciation and amortisation expenses rose only slightly, there were strong increases in the other expense categories.
The increase in the cost of materials was primarily due to higher volumes in container transport. Other operating expenses were mainly impacted by increased consultancy costs and higher property taxes in the real estate segment. The rise in personnel expenses was primarily attributable to increased volumes. There were additional impacts from the expansion of business in rail transport, union wage rate rises and the increased deployment of employees from the GHB pool at the Hamburg container terminals.
The operating result (EBIT) rose by 25.7 % to € 117.1 million during the reporting period (previous year: € 93.2 million). The EBIT margin amounted to 8.8 % (previous year: 7.9 %). In the Port Logistics subgroup, EBIT rose by 31.7 % to € 107.4 million (previous year: € 81.5 million). In the Real Estate subgroup, EBIT declined by 16.9 % to € 9.5 million (previous year: € 11.4 million).
Net expenses from financial result increased by € 6.3 million, or 18.4 %, to € 40.4 million (previous year: € 34.1 million).
At 31.3 %, the Group’s effective tax rate was virtually unchanged from its prior-year tax rate (previous year: 31.5 %). The year-on-year increase in the Group’s total tax expense as of 30 September 2025 was in line with the rise in Group EBT.
Profit after tax grew by € 12.2 million to € 52.8 million (previous year: € 40.5 million). Profit after tax and non-controlling interests was up strongly year-on-year at € 34.9 million (previous year: € 23.1 million). Earnings per share amounted to € 0.46 (previous year: € 0.31). Earnings per share for the listed Port Logistics subgroup were € 0.41 (previous year: € 0.22). Earnings per share of the non-listed Real Estate subgroup were down year-on-year at € 1.97 (previous year: € 2.54). The return on capital employed (ROCE) amounted to 5.9 % (previous year: 5.0 %).