Subject to approval by an extraordinary general meeting on 18 November, this will bring the total dividend payment by WW for 2005 to NOK 8 per share.
Adjusted for substantial one-off items and the recently-completed acquisition of Unitor, the company delivered the same solid result for the third quarter as it did in the same period of 2004. Net operating profit for the third quarter was USD 39 million, compared with USD 64 million in the same period of last year.
Total operating income for the third quarter came to USD 603 million as against USD 460 million for the same period of last year. Profit was USD 51 million before tax, compared with USD 59 million for July-September last year, and USD 45 million after tax as against USD 50 million.
“The third quarter was characterised by seasonal fluctuations because of summer holidays at car factories in Europe and a strike at Hyundai and Kia in Korea,” says WW chief executive Ingar Skaug. “Activity since 30 September has reached a high level.”
The first nine months of 2005 yielded a net operating profit of USD 165 million, compared with USD 155 million for the same period of last year. Total operating income was USD 1 599 million as against USD 1 344 million. Profit came to USD 189 million before tax, as against USD 140 million, and USD 173 million after tax compared with USD 121 million.
The market for car carrying, high and heavy cargoes and non-containerised cargoes is strong, with good cargo availability in the most important trades.
Declining oil prices mean that the high cost of bunkers could fall. Operational efficiency improvements at WW’s subsidiaries and greater cooperation between these companies are also contributing to the results.
Following its acquisition of Unitor, WW now has 382 offices in 72 countries.
“The integration of Unitor makes us one of Norway’s most international companies, with a global network covering the great majority of maritime trade lines,” says Mr Skaug.
“Many of our companies have offices in the same towns. We know we can fine tune our organisation, take out efficiency gains and thereby improve our results even further in the time to come.”
WW expects its results for 2005 to represent a clear improvement from last year, providing no changes occur in the value of financial instruments.
The management report reflects the WW group’s partner-based ownership structure and underlying operations better than the official accounts. The same accounting principles are applied in both management report and official accounts, but the former takes a different consolidation approach. That provides more detailed information on the total financial results achieved by the group through its many joint ventures. Both sets of accounts are presented in WW’s interim report.
» Link to press release Q3 2005 (English)
» Link to Q3 2005 report (English)
» Link to press release Q3 2005 (Norwegian)
» Link to Q3 2005 report (Norwegian)
» Link to presentation by Sjur Galtung
» Link to presentation by Ingar Skaug