Profits slide at ferry firm

Ferry and freight services group Irish Continental has said it is cautious about its growth prospects for this year, after seeing pre-tax profits fall by over 20% last year.

Full-year figures for 2012 show the group — which owns the Irish Ferries and the Eucon freight businesses — generated pre-tax profits of €21m last year; down from €26.4m in 2011.

Group revenues rose by 1.7% to €256.1m, with basic earnings per share rising by just under 65% to 183.2c. Despite a 3.2% fall in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) to €45.8m and a 2.2% drop in operating profits to €26.5m, John McGuckian, group chairman, said that last year’s performance had been “resilient”.