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.