By NZPA
|
Tuesday 20th August 2002 |
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That compares with average analysts' forecasts of about $44 million.
Chairman Neville Darrow said the "very pleasing result" was achieved on a 5 percent increase in container volumes and a 12 percent rise in non-containerised cargoes.
"Port operations continued to perform well with revenue tracking steadily upwards on increased volumes and with costs continuing on a steady path downwards," he said.
Chief executive Geoff Vazey said most container ports around the world had had trade severely curtailed by events surrounding September 11.
"As in the so-called Asian crisis, Ports of Auckland proved resilient," Mr Vazey said.
The company, 80 percent-owned by local authority Infrastructure Auckland, declared a final dividend of 17.5 cents, taking its full year payout to 30 cents.
Shares in the company jumped 20 cents to $6.40 on the result, albeit on light volume.
"It was a good result backed by good volume growth, not just containers but also by bulk," McDougal Stuart Securities dealer Chris Stone said.
Some analysts were less than impressed, however, pointing to the fact that the result was boosted by several million dollars worth of unusual items .
"The reported number of $46.5 million was in line with our forecast but there was a $3.1 million abnormal positive that related to a property transaction and there was $1.5 million of interest income that we hadn't anticipated," UBS Warburg head of research Richard Leggat said.
"So it was a fair result, but it wasn't quite as good as we were expecting at the underlying level.
"It is still a reasonable company, but revenues were a bit lower than our estimate -- they came in at $156 million and we were looking for $161 million -- and the ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was $83.1 million and we were looking for $88.5 million."
Ports of Auckland is the country's biggest port operator, handling about two-thirds of New Zealand imports and about a third of all exports by value.
The port has also been increasingly used as a hub port by some major shipping lines with containers on-carried to Pacific Island or Australian ports, or other New Zealand ports.
Container volumes grew by 5 percent during the period to 593,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), while breakbulk or non-containerised volumes rose 12 percent to 4.8 million tonnes.
Breakbulk volumes were buoyed by the import of 166,700 vehicles, compared with 145,600 last year.
Looking ahead, Mr Vazey said the coming year was likely to be challenging in an economic climate that was showing few signs of growth.
"However, Ports of Auckland is well placed to continue along a steady path... we anticipate improved container volume growth in the year ahead," he said.
July container volumes were up 5 percent on the same month last year, while breakbulk volumes were ahead by 16 percent. Containers comprise about 70 percent of Ports of Auckland's volumes and about 90 percent of its business.
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