P&O Nedlloyd To Buy Farrell Lines
It is reported that P&O Nedlloyd reached an agreement to buy U.S. Farrell Lines Inc for an undisclosed sum. No timing was set for the purchase, which is subject to approval by the U.S. Maritime Administration and other agencies. Farrell is a privately-owned U.S. shipping company based in New York City which employs 165 staff. It operates five U.S. flagged container ships in a service between the U.S. East Coast and the Mediterranean. Farrell's services will be upgraded to enable it to link with P&O Nedlloyd's global network to operate weekly service to a number of eastern Mediterranean ports. P&O Nedlloyd is a 50-50 joint venture held by Dutch Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep NV and Britain's P&O.
P&O Nedlloyd Container Line Ltd
P&O Nedlloyd Container Line Ltd. posted its best-ever second quarter results on Thursday. The group said profits before tax were $28 million, a $60 million improvement on a $32 million loss notched up for the same period last year. P & O Nedlloyd attributed the solid performance, achieved despite high fuel costs, to growing volume and cost savings. Volume during the second quarter was the greatest ever achieved by the group, a 50-50 joint venture between Dutch Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep NV and Britain's Peninular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co, since it started trading in 1997. P & O Nedlloyd said annualized savings, currently running at around $60 million, would comfortably hit a target of $100 million by the end of this year and $180 million by the end of 2001.
P&O Nedlloys Posts Best-Ever 1Q Numbers
Container shipping group P&O Nedlloyd posted its best ever first-quarter operating profit on Wednesday, helped by lower fuel prices and a seven percent rise in traffic. The company, a joint venture between Britain's P&O and Dutch Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep, reported an operating profit of $31 million for the three months, compared with a year-ago loss of $14 million. In addition to a traffic volume rise, the firm said revenue rates rose by five percent from a year ago, although they remained flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2000. But the company again declined to offer a full-year forecast, citing continued uncertainty in the world economy, although it said it was on 'solid footing' to withstand those uncertainties. - (Reuters)
Merrill Lynch "Reduces" P&O's Rating
Merrill Lynch said on Monday it had cut its rating on British shipping and logistics group The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) to "reduce" from "neutral" in the intermediate term. Analysts at the investment bank also cut their long-term rating on the stock to "accumulate" from "buy", citing a worsening outlook for the company's container business. They expected second-quarter results for P&O Nedlloyd (P&O's joint venture with Dutch Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep), due on Thursday, to be poor for sentiment, they said. "The tone is unlikely to be encouraging and the risk with forecasts is on the downside," they said.
