Jyske Bank News

Shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk reported a steep drop in third-quarter profit and revenue on Friday and said it would cut at least 10,000 jobs in the face of overcapacity, rising costs, and weaker prices.Maersk, which controls about one-sixth of global container trade, transporting goods for a host of major retailers and consumer goods companies such as Walmart and Nike, flagged a steeper downturn in demand than analysts and investors had expected."Our industry is facing a new normal with subdued demand…

Analysts believe results and outlook in the final quarter report of Maersk (Feb. 9) might be weighed down by consolidation effects from the Hamburg Sud deal and the market situation in China. Morgan Stanley says integration expenses related to the deal would limit profitability contribution in 2018 and that Maersk Line will return to peak EBIT margins in 2020. Jyske Bank, which keeps rating "sell" for the company, sees a potential threat to Maersk Line Q4 volumes and EBITDA from significant cuts in China's import of waste materials. Brokerage SEB takes a more optimistic stance on the Danish shipping group as it expects a better supply/demand balance in 2018-19. Separately, J.P. Morgan sees H1 2018 freight rate environment "highly volatile", while considering FY19 to look attractive.

Maersk Line posts loss, but company sees improvement. A.P. Moller-Maersk beat first-quarter net profit forecasts on Thursday, boosted by the energy business it plans to spin off, but also reported signs of improvement at its long-suffering container shipping business. Shares in the Danish conglomerate climbed almost 5 percent after it said a gradual recovery in freight rates should boost earnings at Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipping business, over the rest of the year. Maersk has been hit by the double blow of low oil prices at its energy arm and sliding prices in its shipping business due to lacklustre global trade and industry overcapacity.

Hempel A/S announced that CEO Pierre-Yves Jullien will be succeeded by Henrik Andersen, Group COO of ISS A/S, by March 1st 2016. Henrik Andersen has been with ISS A/S since 2000, since 2011 as Member of the Executive Board, first as Group CFO and from 2013 Group COO, EMEA and following a recent change been appointed in his current position as global Group COO. Prior to returning to Copenhagen in 2011, Henrik spent 7 years in the UK starting as CFO and from 2008 to 2011 as CEO for ISS UK and its 43,000 employees. During his tenure, ISS UK grew from GBP 500m to GBP 925m in turnover and more than doubled earnings. ISS A/S is one of the world´s largest facility services providers with more than 500.000 employees…

Maersk Line lost market share in container shipping in the first quarter, disappointing analysts who said A.P. Moller-Maersk's  forecast-beating results on Wednesday had been helped by one-offs. While the world's largest container shipping business reported a jump in net profit to $714 million from $454 million, due largely to lower bunker fuel prices, analysts noted the Danish conglomerate failed to announce divestments or investor perks such as share buybacks and additional dividends, as it had in recent quarters.

Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk will hand shareholders a $6.6 billion windfall in dividends this year after it sells its 20 percent stake in Denmark's biggest bank Danske. Analysts had expected Maersk to announce the divestment of some assets on Wednesday as part of its strategy of focusing on its core shipping and oil divisions - but the Danske Bank stake had not been among the anticipated sales. Maersk - the world's largest container shipping company - said it would sell 15 percent to its controlling shareholder, the Moller family foundation, saying the deal ensured Danske remained in Danish hands and had a long-term major investor. It will offer the remaining 5 percent to other existing Maersk shareholders, it added.

Full-year underlying profit guidance unchanged; writedown raises questions over company's oil strategy. Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk moved to shrink its Brazilian petroleum operations on Tuesday, selling its stake in its only producing Brazilian oilfield and saying it will write off $1.7 billion of investments in the country. The write-off affects two exploration areas, Itaipu and Wahoo, which failed to deliver on oil volume expectations, and the Polvo field, both northeast of Rio de Janeiro in the Campos Basin, Maersk said. Maersk bought the assets from South Korea's SK Energy Co Ltd for $2.4 billion in 2011. On Tuesday, Brazil's HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA said it bought Maersk's 40 percent Polvo stake for an undisclosed sum.