EXCEPTIONAL PROFITS BRING NOL’S HALF-YEAR RESULTS BACK TO THE BLACK

   After two years of heavy losses, Neptune Orient Lines, the parent company of APL, reported a net profit of S$10 million (US$6 million) for the first half of the year.
   The small net profit, which compares with a net deficit of S$241 million ($143 million) in the first half of 1998, was achieved thanks to exceptional profits made on the sale of assets.
   NOL had posted annual deficits of S$438 million (US$265 million) in 1998 and S$297 million (US$178 million) in 1997, following its takeover of APL.
   NOL reported group revenues of S$3.45 billion (US$2 billion) for the latest six-month period, up 16 percent on the first half of last year.
   Non-recurring profits for the first half amounted to S$177 million (US$100 million), compared to exceptional profits of S$84 million (US$50 million) in the same period of 1998. NOL made a gain of S$285 million (US$167 million) on the sale of APL’s former stacktrain activities and posted various non-recurring losses and provisions.
   Before non-recurring items, NOL reported a loss of S$167 million (US$98 million), an improvement over a loss of $325 million (US$193 million) in the same period of last year.
   "We are on the right track, but nowhere near where we want to be," said Flemming Jacobs, group president and chief executive officer of NOL.
   APL, the liner arm of the Singaporean transport and logistics group, carried about 1,167,000 TEUs in the first half, an increase of 16 percent.
   NOL said that the Asian economic crisis is now bottoming out and that freight rates are increasing in some key trades.
   The NOL group, currently in the midst of a restructuring program, said that the first-half profit "is not intended to be a one-off event." NOL predicted that it will report a full-year profit for 1999.
   Details of NOL’s financial results and other companies are posted on the ComPairData global shipping database at https://www.compairdata.com.