Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
Global Ports reported a narrower first-quarter loss as the cruise port operator delivered good growth in cruise passenger volumes despite the traditional lull seen in the industry during the early part of the year.
For the 3 months to 31 March, the company reported a pre-tax loss of $9.6m, compared with a loss of $12.6m a year earlier, and revenue was flat at $20.7m. Total cruise revenue rose by 4.6% year-on-year to $5.4m for the first quarter, above the$5.2m in seen a year earlier.
Cruise earnings (EBITDA) rose 51.7% to $3.5m in the period, from a year earlier.
Total commercial revenues fell by 1.1% year over year to $15.3m for the quarter, with revenue growth in Port Akdeniz offset by an expected decline in Port of Adria.
Total container volumes were up 2.6% year over year, with both commercial ports delivering growth, the company said.
'Overall the Group has delivered a good performance in Q1 and trading since the period end has been in line with management expectations,' the company said.
But total general & bulk cargo volumes fell 59.1% year-on-year, which the company blamed on a 'continuation of the trends reported for H2 2018, with General & Bulk cargo volumes at Port Akdeniz falling 66.2% in the quarter. '
The company said it remained confident of meeting expectation despite weakness in its general & bulk cargo segment.
'Despite the ongoing weak General & Bulk cargo volumes we remain confident of delivering on our expectations of mid to high single digit percentage growth in EBITDA for the full year.'
'While some negative volume trends at our commercial ports have persisted into Q1 2019, overall the ports continue to perform in line with our EBITDA expectations and our work to diversify our revenue streams means we remain confident of good Commercial EBITDA performance in the year,' said Emre Sayin, Chief Executive Officer.
'Trading at both our cruise and commercial ports have continued to perform in line with our expectations as we head into the Summer season.'
'The first half of our financial year is typically lower in terms of cruise passenger volumes due to the seasonally low Q1, hence trends during first half are not fully informative for full-year trends,' the company said.
At 9:37am: (LON:GPH) Global Ports Holding Plc share price was -14.5p at 372.5p