POOR RO-RO MARKET, EXCEPTIONAL COST HIT WILH. WILHELMSEN’S ANNUAL RESULTS

POOR RO-RO MARKET, EXCEPTIONAL COST HIT WILH. WILHELMSEN’S ANNUAL RESULTS    Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA, the diversified Norwegian shipping group that owns 50 percent of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines, posted a 42-percent drop in net income for 2001, to $27.6 million, as it reported adverse trends in the roll-on/roll-off shipping market and exceptional costs.
   The result compares with a net income of $47.8 million in 2000.
   Financial results “showed a decline from the year before,” the Norwegian group said. “Earnings by the liner and car carrier business remain far from satisfactory, and results were clearly poorer than in 2000.”
   Results from tanker operations were also weaker than the year before, while agency and ship management service companies Barber International and Barwil Agencies again presented good results.
   Group net operating income decreased by 16 percent last year, to $67.3 million, from $80.4 million in 2000.
   Total group revenue came to $817 million, down from $835.4 million in 2000.
   Wilh. Wilhelmsen’s share of the net operating income from liner and car carrier operations conducted by Wallenius Wilhelmsen came to $59.8 million in 2001, down from $84.6 million the year before. Net income from liner and car carrier activities dropped to $18 million, from $35.5 million, and revenue decreased to $673.7 million, from $696.3 million.
   “The weakening in net operating income for the year as a whole primarily reflected a contraction in car volumes from the Far East to Europe and the U.S.A, and a substantial drop in container rates,” the group said. However, volumes in the other traffic areas held up well.
   For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2001, the Wilh. Wilhelmsen group made a net income of $3.7 million, down 79-percent from the $17.5 million net result in the year-earlier quarter. Net operating income for the latest quarter was $6.5 million, down from $25.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2000. Gross revenue was $205.3 million, up from $188.9 million.
   The group has charged “substantial one-off items” to its fourth quarter accounts. A charge in the order of $3.3 million for Offshore Heavy Transport ASA relates to a termination fee to the former management company. In the liner and car carrier business, container operations showed a loss for the quarter and fixed assets were written down. Restructuring costs were also incurred by the group in Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines.
   Wilh. Wilhelmsen agreed during the fourth quarter to acquire a 20-percent holding in Compagnie d’Affretement et de Transport SA, the French logistics company that manages the transport of all vehicles and car components for Renault in Europe.
   Commenting on future prospects, Wilh. Wilhelmsen said that developments in the car carrier and ro-ro markets will be crucial for Wallenius Wilhelmsen Lines, the main contribution to the group’s results.
   This company “is currently experiencing weak markets in some of its traffic areas, and the global economic outlook in 2002 gives little grounds for optimism over results in the short term,” Wilh. Wilhelmsen said. However, the group expects its liner and car carrier business to produce a “somewhat better result” this year than in 2001.