Financial and operating results of FESCO Transportation Group for 2019
FESCO Transportation Group announces its operating and consolidated financial results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2019. The Group also informs that all audit procedures regarding 2019 IFRS consolidated financial statements have been completed.
The Group reports an expansion across its core business lines, with intermodal transportation on the East–West route increased to 46% and handling in Russia’s Far East via Commercial Port of Vladivostok (the “Port”) to 44%:
intermodal transportation grew to 344 thousand TEU (up 14% YoY);
handling volumes at the Port reached an all-time high, with 11.5 million tonnes of cargo handled in 2019 (up 10% YoY), including record-breaking 625 thousand TEU of containers and 5.1 million tonnes of general cargo.
The Group reduced delivery time for cargoes along the key Shanghai–Moscow route to 24 days, two times faster than the sea route via the Suez Canal.
Together with RZD Logistics, the Group launched Trans-Siberian Landbridge, a joint service for express delivery of transit cargoes from the Asia Pacific to Europe via Vladivostok over the Trans-Siberian Railway.
In line with its strategy of expanding its land network, FESCO introduced railway routes from China to Russia via Mongolia, from Russia to China via the Grodekovo/Suifenhe land border crossing and China-to-Germany and return transit trains via Kaliningrad and Germany-to-China transit trains via the Far East.
The Group launched an intermodal container service for cargo delivery from Russian cities to the Kuril Islands via the Far East.
FESCO introduced new container trains for deliveries across Russia – from Yekaterinburg to St Petersburg and from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk.
The Group’s net debt / EBITDA ratio decreased to 3.7x (excluding IFRS 16 impact).
The Group sold its non-core assets – all gondola cars and pellet hoppers and part of the old fleet. FESCO also entered into a preliminary sales and purchase agreement for the grain transportation business (TRANS-GRAIN and related assets).
FESCO signed a contract to procure five cranes for the Port, purchased two container vessels, concluded a contract for an ice-class universal vessel, expanded its fleet of fitting platforms to 6,620 units and entered into an agreement with Russian Railways to acquire the remaining stake in Russkaya Troyka that is not under the Group’s control.
The Group started a partnership with the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research under the Ministry of Earth Science of India to deliver supplies to the Indian research stations in Antarctica. Over 4 thousand tonnes of supplies have been transported by the diesel-electric ship Vasiliy Golovnin.
FESCO partnered with Russian Railways to launch electronic processing for intermodal transportation of imports resulting in the processing time at Commercial Port of Vladivostok shortened from 5 days to 21 hours.
The Group continued building up its supply chain management in 3PL and 4PL segments, having significantly grown its order portfolio.
