Rise in financing costs hurts profits at ICG

Shipping group, Irish Continental (ICG) saw profits grow in both its ferry and freight/terminal divisions in the first half of this year, but an increase in financing costs dragged group pre-tax profits down by nearly 11%.

ICG’s interim results — covering the six months to the end of June — show revenues of €120.9m; up by 3.3% on the same period last year; EBITDA of €15.8m, which was a 12.1% year-on-year improvement; and basic earnings per share of 16.4c, which were up by nearly 20%.

However, pre-tax profits were down by 10.8% — from €3.7m to €3.3m; mainly due to increased borrowing costs relating to management’s share buy-back programme late last year. Financing costs went from €1.2m last year to €3.1m in the first half of this year.

In the container and terminal division — which includes the Eucon freight unit — ICG saw an 8.3% annualised increase in first-half turnover to €52.2m, with operating profits up from €1.7m to €2.4m.

Irish Ferries, meanwhile, grew profits by 25% to €4m, with revenue static at €69.4m. In terms of customer volumes, the group said passenger and car markets were mixed — passengers up by 0.3%, but cars down by 4.2% — but said that summer trading was “satisfactory”.

“This was a positive half-year’s trading with increases in revenue and operating profit driven mainly by higher freight carryings and lower fuel costs, partially offset by weaker passenger markets,” group chairman, John McGuckian noted.

He said: “Summer trading has been encouraging across most business areas, with volume growth in passenger and freight offset by weaker sterling.”