Braemar: Earnings ahead of expectations

Braemar: Earnings ahead of expectations    Braemar Shipping Services reported net profit of '9.7 million ($14.5 million) for its fiscal year ended Feb. 28, compared to '11.5 million the prior fiscal year.
   Revenue was '119 million ($176 million) compared to '127 million a year earlier.
   Chairman Graham Hearne said results were “ahead of our expectations at the beginning of the year. After the exceptional years of boom conditions in shipping through 2007 and most of 2008, the 2009-10 profits are the third-highest in the group's history.
   'Demand in most shipping sectors is recovering steadily in line with the improving economic outlook. We go into the new financial year with a healthy forward book and we are positive on the outlook for the year ahead,' he said.
   Braemar Seascope provides specialized shipbroking and consultancy services to international clients. Braemar Steege provides specialist loss adjusting and other expert services to the energy (oil and gas), marine, power and other related industrial sectors.
   The company has established two new businesses: a marine cargo loss adjusting business based in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore under the name Braemar Marine; and an expansion of Wavespec's activity by the opening of an operation in Houston under the name Braemar Wavespec Inc.
   The company said its logistics business, Cory Brothers Shipping Agency, and environmental division, both of which operate predominantly in the United Kingdom, performed well despite economic recession.
   Braemar Marine was launched in August 2009 to provide marine surveying and adjusting services to the hull, cargo and protection & indemnity insurance market. With a head office in Atlanta, a surveying network has been established with personnel based in London, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Houston, Puerto Rico and Rio de Janeiro.
   The company said the severe earthquake in Haiti provided Braemar Marine with its first catastrophe response work. It said it was the first marine surveyors on scene and carried out a large proportion of the work generated by the earthquake. In April 2010, a Braemar Marine presence was established in Singapore and the company said its business in Asia is expected to develop quickly, utilizing its network of Braemar Falconer surveyors in the region who provide surveying and engineering services to the marine and offshore sectors.