Eimskip: Results for the year 2019

Highlights of the year 2019 results Revenue amounted to EUR 679.6 million, a decrease of EUR 9.6 million or 1.4% when compared with the year 2018. Revenues e.g. affected by lower volume in container liner, especially import to Iceland. Expenses amounted to EUR 630.2 million (excluding IFRS 16), a decrease of EUR 9.7 million where salary expenses decreased by EUR 5.9 million or 4.3%.EBITDA amounted to EUR 60.5 million or EUR 49.4 million (excluding IFRS 16) compared to EUR 49...

Reykjavik, 27/02/2020 (informazione.news - comunicati stampa - trasporti)

“The year 2019 was characterized by lower import levels to Iceland which decreased by 10.7%, in line with Statistics Iceland total import numbers. Furthermore, no capelin season and lower catch around Iceland for the last quarter of the year had considerable impact on export volumes from Iceland. However, I am pleased to see that our efforts and commitment in various improvement and streamlining measures positively impacted results and will continue to realize in 2020.  This is in line with the current journey to streamline and focus on core operations.

Our operations in Norway improved throughout the year and the Trans-Atlantic service grew by double digit numbers. Results of the forwarding operation increased between years despite lower volumes.

Salary expenses decreased by EUR 5.9 million year on year, mostly due to decrease in FTE's as a result of business integration.

Although our net earnings are low at EUR 1 million, main reasons being one-off impairment expenses related to sale of five vessels and one-off tax expense in Q1 2019, we are very pleased with significant increase in cashflow from operation between years.

We introduced a new container sailing system in October and managed to reduce number of container vessels by one. We were able to increase service and reliability in the system as well as lower fixed operating cost. At the end of the year Eimskip divested five vessels and took important steps in renewal of the container vessel fleet and alignment of the reefer vessel fleet to current operation. Eimskip publishes today its ESG report for the year 2019, now for the first time parallel to the publishing of the financial statements for the year. Eimskip's carbon footprint, as measured by CO emission per ton of transported cargo, has decreased by 14.2% since 2015 exceeding our goal and I am sure that we are offering the most environmentally friendly solution in transport to and from Iceland.

Our new vessels that are being built in China, which are specially designed to reduce environmental impact, are now expected to be delivered in Q2 and Q3. We look forward to starting the co-operation with Royal Arctic Line which is now expected to commence after delivery of the first vessel in Q2.

In August we shared our intention to sell the subsidiary Sæferdir ehf. After initiating a sales process, there was an interest in the company however prolonged discussions did not lead to sale. We have now decided to discontinue the process and continue to run an excellent ferry service in Breidafjordur.

The EBITDA guidance for the year 2020 is in the range of EUR 51-58 million excluding IFRS 16 effect. This wide range is mainly explained by uncertainty regarding economic development in Iceland, global market condition and the development of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Finally, I would like to thank our dedicated employees for their hard work in the past year and our customers and business partners for valuable co-operation.”

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