Solid half-year results with VTG Group
VTG AG (Hamburg) reports on increases in rail logistics Hamburg-based wagon hire and rail logistics company VTG Aktiengesellschaft drew a solid half-year balance on 27 August 2009. Compared with the figure for the previous year turnover dropped by 3.7 per cent to EUR 287.3 million. Operating profit (EBITDA) fell by 3.1 percent to EUR 75.4 million. For the financial year as a whole, the executive management expects revenue and EBITDA to drop only around five percent compared to the previous year. In the wagon hire division demand for the around 49,400 wagons is, with a capacity utilization of around 88.9 percent at a satisfying level despite the weak economic climate. A proportion of returned wagons can be hired out again and most newly-built wagons are being hired out directly. Revenue in the first six months of 2009 fell slightly by 1.6 percent to EUR 141 million. EBITDA, at EUR 74.3 million, slightly failed the level for the same period of the previous year. The rail logistics division benefited from positive business development in cross-border block train transports to and from eastern and south-eastern Europe as well as from transports of liquefied petroleum gas. This offset the decline in demand for chemical transports. This effected a rise in turnover in the first six months of 2009 by 5.2 per cent to EUR 91.2 million, while EBITDA remained at the last year’s level (EUR 3.3 million). VTG AG’s tank container logistics division was affected significantly by the international economic crisis of the global chemical industry. Revenue in the first six months of 2009 fell 19.2 per cent to EUR 55.1 million. EBITDA fell by 30.2 per cent to EUR 3.2 million. |