ACL SAYS IT WILL REBOUND AFTER LOWER 1999 PROFITS

ACL SAYS IT WILL REBOUND AFTER LOWER 1999 PROFITS    Atlantic Container Line, the transatlantic shipping line, said that it will have much better financial results this year, after last year’s fall in profits caused by the lowest rate levels in the company’s 32-year history.
   ACL recently reported a 73-percent fall in its net profit for 1999, to 67 million Swedish Krona ($8 million), as transatlantic container freight rates
decreased by 20 percent from the previous year.
   “We still earned a profit, both at the operating level and at the bottom line and we are gradually building to what should be an impressive financial rebound for the first year of the new millenium,” said Olav Rakkenes, president and chief executive officer of ACL.
   In a statement to shareholders, Rakkenes said that ACL has paid off debt on three of its five vessels and introduced a customer service computer system that reduces costs and improves service.
   “We have proved what we have been saying since ACL first went public in 1994 – in a bad year we will make little money, and in a good year we will make a lot of money,” he added.
   The company’s 1999 annual report, just published, shows that ACL had a return of capital employed of 12 percent last year, compared to 27 percent in 1998, 23 percent in 1997 and 19 percent in 1996