A settlement with the former owners of Manfreight’s European acquisition, Win Bosman, has helped boost the results of the listed transport firm.
The company has reported a net surplus of $29.87 million for the first six months of the 2014 trading year, up 7.7% period on period.
EBITDA improved to $63.30 million, an increase of $2.24 million over the previous year.
Total revenue (sales) increased 1.7% to $952.70 million, up 4%.
Abnormal items affecting the result included the $12.74 million settlement, a cost of $684,000 from fraud at its Daily Freight subsidiary and $97,000 in redundancy costs in the United States and Europe.
With these taken into account, the new surplus is boosted to $41.83 million.
Trading during the first three months of the 2014 financial year saw reduced volumes and profitability across most of the Mainfreight network, however, performance through August and September improved and this has continued through October and into November.
Regionally, Australasia and Asia have contributed strongly, while results from Europe and the Americas are disappointing and these remain the areas of greatest concern.
In the report, the company highlighted the healthy performance in its home market.
All New Zealand divisions performed strongly for the first half year, and are carrying this momentum into the peak period leading up to Christmas.
Total revenue for the New Zealand operations increased 6.5% to $243.15 million, compared to the same period last year. EBITDA improved 14.3% to $27.65 million.
Domestic freight volumes have strengthened further, with transport and warehousing operations benefiting. Stage one reconstruction of Mainfreight’s Christchurch facilities has been completed providing much needed additional warehousing capacity.
The New Zealand air and ocean business has delivered increased revenue and profitability, performing well across all trade lanes and in both air-freight and sea-freight products.
