[270513.EN.LOG] Damco Investment Reduces Pre-tax Profit 31pc, But Revenues Rise 6pc

MAERSK's standalone forwarding unit, Damco, has posted a 31 per cent year-on-year decline in first quarter pretax profit (EBITA) of US$9 million, drawn on revenues of US$773 million, up six per cent.

"We made significant investments to adjust our business model - in light of the changing market - to make it more scalable and to enable further growth and profit improvement in the years to come," said Damco CEO Rolf Habben-Jansen.

Air freight led growth with volumes up 15 per cent year on year, which was "well ahead of the market, enhanced by the acquisition in last quarter of 2012 of Pacific Network Global Logistics (PacNet)", said a Damco statement.

Ocean freight volumes were up one per cent year on year, but supply chain management volumes increased 10 per cent, mainly driven by the impact of new customers and a strong pre-Chinese New Year uptake in volumes.

"Overall our performance in Q1 has been satisfactory, with solid growth in most products and underlying trading only slightly below 2012," Mr Haben-Jansen said.

"We will continue to make investments in the upcoming quarters, even if that will impact our reported results. This quarter we also completed the headquarters' relocation, have made very good progress in rolling out our new Unity global IT platform and have successfully integrated the PacNet acquisition," he said.

Damco has 10,800 employees in more than 300 offices in 90 countries and representation in a further 30 countries. In 2012, the company had a net turnover of US$3.3 billion, managed more than 2.7 million TEU and air freighted 210,000 tonnes.

Source : HKSG.