Maersk reports red ink despite strong revenue growth

Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller - Maersk

MAY 17, 2018 — Shares in A.P. Moller – Maersk took a hit this morning after the company reported disappointing first quarter results. Despite strong revenue growth, the underlying result after financial items and tax was a loss of $239 million.

“In the first quarter of 2018, we reported a 30% revenue growth and the integration of the business is well underway with a successful start to the Hamburg Süd integration and the closing of Maersk Oil transaction in March with an accounting gain of $2.6 billion,” said CEO Søren Skou. “At the same time, on the short-term performance, our result especially in the ocean related part of the business was unsatisfactory. In response to the current challenging market conditions we are implementing a number of short-term initiatives to improve profitability and we reiterate our guidance for 2018.”

A.P. Moller – Maersk says that expectations for 2018 are for an underlying profit above 2017 ($356 million) and an EBITDA in the range of $4.0-5.0 billion ($3.5 billion), however the company notes “increased uncertainties due to geopolitical risks, trade tensions and other factors impacting container freight rates, bunker prices and rate of exchange.

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