SHIPPING REVENUES AND PROFITS SOAR AT A.P. MOLLER

SHIPPING REVENUES AND PROFITS SOAR AT A.P. MOLLER    Denmark’s A.P. Moller group, the parent company of Maersk Sealand, said its shipping activities produced a 73-percent increase in revenues last year, to DKr74.4 billion ($10.1 billion), combined with a 140-percent jump in net profit, to DKr4 billion ($536 million).
   The figures represent the combined results of A.P. Moller’s A/S Dampskibsselskabet Svendborg and Dampskibsselskabet Af 1912 A/S shipping companies and those of the “Tankers and Liners” partnership.
   The year-on-year increase in combined shipping revenues of more than $4 billion was the result of a full year of activities of Sea-Land within the A.P. Moller group, improved market conditions and increased activities in tanker and bulk shipping. Sea-Land’s international container shipping activities were absorbed by the Danish group in December 1999.
   In 1999, the combined net profit from the shipping businesses of A.P. Moller decreased because of a DKr1.2-billion implementation charge related to the takeover of Sea-Land. The Danish group also said it incurred costs last year because of the acquisition of the container shipping line.
   The combined result before gains on sale and special items, for the shipping businesses, rose to DKr3.9 billion ($515 million) last year, from DKr2.8 billion in 1999 and DKr1.8 billion in 1998.
   “The result before gains on sale and special items … was positively affected by generally better conditions in most shipping areas, but negatively affected by considerably higher fuel expenses,” A.P. Moller said.
   On the whole, the integration of Sea-Land and Maersk Line “went according to plan,” and was “a considerable task,” a spokesman for the group said.
   A.P. Moller said container freight rates were stable during the first three quarters of 2000, but came under pressure in the latter part of the year as the market declined.
   The Danish group does not disclose the results of Maersk Sealand separately.
   The “Tankers and Liners” partnership arm of A.P. Moller posted a net profit of DKr945 million ($126 million) for 2000, four times the DKr236-million result recorded in 1999. Part of the improvement was due to the non-recurrence of a DKr560 million integration charge related to the Sea-Land acquisition. Before gains on sale and special items, the “Tankers and Liners” partnership reported a result of DKr2.6 billion ($342 million), up 48 percent from the DKr1.7 billion result in 1999.
   A.P. Moller also said the result of Maersk Inc. Group, its North American subsidiary, “was considerably above that of 1999.” This was primarily because of synergies from the Maersk/Sea-Land takeover and continued growth, the group said.
   A.P. Moller said that reduced growth in the U.S. economy affects developments in the container shipping markets negatively. However, it predicted that its result from container shipping this year “is expected to be higher than that of 2000, which was affected by the Sea-Land
implementation.”
   Details and comparisons of the financial results for 2000 of A.P. Moller and those of 14 other container shipping companies are posted on https://www.compairdata.com, the global liner shipping database.