Rail Cargo Austria’s annual result deeply in the red in 2008
Rail Cargo Austria feeling impact of economic crisis in 2009 Due to goodwill impairment of invested capital at the amount of EUR 60 million, which is resulting from the economic crisis, Rail Cargo Austria AG (RCA) shows a decrease in operating result of EUR 39.4 million (2007: plus EUR 24.67 million) in the balance sheet of 2008. Excluding the goodwill impairment the operating result would be positive with EUR 20.54 million. The annual result turned from plus EUR 10.6 million in 2007 to minus EUR 292 million. Sales revenue has risen 4.3 per cent to EUR 2.47 billion. Total return amounted to EUR 2.54 billion, which is 5.4 per cent above the reference value of the previous year. RCA’s equity ratio fell from 45 per cent in 2007 to 26 per cent. These figures have been announced at the annual press conference of the ÖBB-Holding AG. Despite the difficult development in the fourth quarter the transport volume of Rail Cargo Austria registered a 1.6%-increase compared to 2007 to 98.5 million tons. The main reason therefore is the Intermodal segment with a 12.4%-increase of the transport volume to 28.7 million tons. The Cargo & Logistics segment (conventional wagon load traffic) forwarded 68.1 million tons (minus 2.3 per cent), while the contract logistics segment forwarded 1.7 million tons (minus 5.6 per cent). As for the latter named segment BEX Logistik forwarded 12 million colli and occupied the top leading position in the Austrian general cargo market, according to its own account. In 2008 around 1.8 million pallets have been handled in 13 logistics centres. The strategic business unit “Universalspeditionen“ registered a slight increase, which is mostly due to specialised forwarding companies. DI Peter Klugar, Chief Executive Officer at ÖBB, reckons with a decline in transport volumes of 20 per cent in 2009. In addition to seizing all opportunities to develop new markets, the Manager announced strict cost-cutting measures to the press. In goods traffic area-wide transports on secondary routes will be checked; the bundling of traffics and a more flexible employment of staff will be taken into consideration. For the time being vacant positions will not be filled. Quelle: Österreichische Verkehrszeitung |