Port of Rotterdam Sees Good Results

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has achieved good financial results in the first six months of the year. An increase in throughput, rises in port dues and higher income from the lease of port sites have resulted in higher turnover. In addition, there were a number of one-off items of income, bringing the net result to $106.3m. The most important one-off item of income was generated by the release of a provision of $24.3m that was made in 2004 in connection with legal proceedings with Barclays arising from the RDM affair. The proposal is to pay out this amount, including interest and less the legal costs involved, as an extra dividend to the Municipality of Rotterdam. Since the Port Authority was privatized in 2004, it has had to raise funds itself on the capital market to finance investments in port infrastructure, including Maasvlakte 2.