Wallenius Wilhelmsen annual report 2018
In a challenging market, Wallenius Wilhelmsen delivered an EBITDA of USD 601 million and a net profit of USD 58 million. The company achieved USD 120 million in merger synergies and initiated a USD 100 million performance improvement programme. The acquisition of Syngin Technology in the US marked the company's entry into full life cycle logistics.
"Despite the tough market, we remain strong and have weathered the storm well. Our single fleet approach has enabled us to adjust and redeploy capacity rapidly across our broad network. We have secured a very high degree of all the contract business sought on land and sea, with re-affirmed confidence from our client base, and we've been able to renegotiate contractual terms for better operational efficiency which will drive real bottom line improvements going forward," says CEO Craig Jasienski.
EBITDA ended at USD 601 million in 2018, a decline of 14% compared to EBITDA (proforma) of USD 706 million in 2017. The performance shortfall was largely driven by the ocean segment, which was negatively impacted by higher and rising bunker prices, a planned reduction in Hyundai Motor Group volumes, lower rates, and unfavourable currency movements. This was partly countered by underlying positive volume development, especially for high & heavy, increased realisation of synergies and early wins on the performance improvement program. For the landbased segment, the results were in line with previous year, positively impacted by the Melbourne terminal being fully operational and the acquisition of Keen Transport in late 2017.
In 2018, the merger synergy target was increased from USD 100 million to USD 120 million and was achieved already in the third quarter. This was immediately succeeded by a new two-year performance improvement programme targeting USD 100 million in bottom line improvements, which will further strengthen the company and improve financial performance. A key part of the programme is leveraging digitalisation and introducing new technologies to optimise voyage and fleet management, increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs.
To learn more, please visit Wallenius Wilhelmsen's annual report 2018 site at https://annualreport.walleniuswilhelmsen.com/2018/
About Wallenius Wilhelmsen The Wallenius Wilhelmsen group (OEX: WALWIL) is a market leader in RoRo shipping and vehicle logistics, transporting cars, trucks, rolling equipment and breakbulk around the world. The company operates around 130 vessels servicing 15 trade routes to six continents, and operates a global inland distribution network, 121 processing centres, and 11 marine terminals. The Wallenius Wilhelmsen group consists of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Solutions, EUKOR and ARC. The group is headquartered in Oslo, Norway with 9.500 employees in 29 countries worldwide. Read more at walleniuswilhelmsen.com
For further information, please contact: Bjørnar Bukholm, Head of Corporate Finance,Strategy & IR Tel: +47 980 72 778 email: bjornar.bukholm@walleniuswilhelmsen.com
Anna Larsson, Head of Corporate Communication Tel: +47 484 06 919 email: anna.larsson@walleniuswilhelmsen.com