Cosco Pacific sees H1 profit drop 24.5%
Cosco Pacific, the container terminal operating and container leasing arm of Chinese giant Cosco, posted a 24.5% drop in first half net profit to $178.9m down from $237.0m in the corresponding period of last year, Seatrade Asia online reports.
The group was dragged down by lower share of profits at its container making associate CIMC but good growth at its Piraeus Terminal in Greece and Guangzhou South China Oceangate Terminal as well as the container leasing business helped dampen the impact.
In fact excluding exceptionals booked in the previous corresponding period net profit only fell 15.9%. Non-recurring items in the first half of 2011 included a gain of $11.8m on the release of exchange reserve upon reclassification of Guangzhou South China Oceangate Terminal from a jointly controlled entity to a subsidiary, and a gain of $12.6m on the disposal of Qingdao Cosport Terminal. Cosco Pacific did not record any exceptional gains this year.
Profit from the terminal business for the first half of 2012 was $97.8m up 1.2% from $96.7m previously. Total throughput of the group's container terminals in the first half reached 26.9m teu up 10.8% from 24.2m teu the year before.
Group revenue rose by almost a third to $367.4m, mainly from the terminal business, which contributed $197.8m and the container leasing, management and sale businesses which saw a revenue of $170.6m.
The total revenue from terminal business for the first half of 2012 increased by 32.3% compared with last year, which was mainly derived from Piraeus Terminal and Guangzhou South China Oceangate Terminal.