STINNES EXPECTS RECORD EARNINGS, MORE ACQUISITIONS

STINNES EXPECTS RECORD EARNINGS, MORE ACQUISITIONS    Stinnes AG, the German parent of logistics company Schenker AG, said it expects to report record annual earnings this year after strong results throughout the first three quarters.
   In the first nine months of 2000, sales increased 14 percent to about 8 billion euro ($6.8 billion) and operating profit jumped 25 percent to 160.7 million euro ($137 million), Stinnes said. Net income was up 42 percent at 126.5 million euro ($108 million).
   “Our goal is to become not only one of the biggest logistics service providers worldwide, but also ” and more importantly ” the most successful one. For this reason, we have once again set ambitious return and financial targets for ourselves for the next two years, and we want these targets to be used as a yardstick to measure our performance,” said Dr. Wulf H. Bernotat, chief executive officer.
   Bernotat vowed to hit by 2002 a 13 percent rate of return on capital employed, a 15 percent cash flow return on investment and a 3 percent pre-tax earnings margin.
   Sales at Schenker increased by 13.2 percent in the first three quarters to 4.3 billion euro. Internal operating profit rose 19.5 percent to 75 million euro. 'The earnings growth was due not only to the European Land Transportation Unit, which benefited from the good economic climate in Europe, but also to the Air and Sea Freight Unit,' Stinnes said.
   Stinnes' profitable chemicals logistics subsidiary, Brenntag, plans to acquire Holland Chemical International, pending regulatory approvals. The HCI acquisition will make Brenntag the largest chemicals logistics firm in the world with about $3.8 billion euro in sales, Stinnes said.
   Further acquisitions may be on the way. Stinnes will 'continue to consolidate its strong market positions,' the company said.
   Stinnes reported that its initial forays into electronic commerce have so far been successful. The company, through Schenker and Brenntag, has signed agreements with online marketplaces, including PaperX.com, GoIndustry.com, GrowNex, Netbid and Elemica. In the third quarter, Schenker signed deals with AutoPartsasia, Econia.com and NewtronCompoNet.de.
   Stinnes expects to generate about 1.1 billion euro in additional sales and more than 60 million euro in pre-tax earnings from e-commerce activities by 2004. The company plans to invest 40 million euro in e-commerce over the next two years.
   Since an initial public stock offering in June last year, Stinnes stock has risen more than 90 percent to 28 euro per share. Stinnes competitor and neighbor Deutsche Post AG will likely launch its IPO at about 20 euro per share on Nov. 20, giving the stock plenty of momentum to rise above the 28 euro mark by first day's end.