Maersk Profit Down 82%
Danish shipping and energy conglomerate Maersk Group delivered a profit of USD 925m for the full year ending December 31st 2015, against USD 5.2bn reported in 2014, a drop of 82%.
Maersk’s underlying profit for full year was USD 3.1bn down from previous year's being USD 4.5bn.
After a satisfactory result in the first half of the year with a ROIC of 10.2%, Maersk Group was severely impacted by a widening supply-demand gap across most of our businesses, leading to significant oil price and freight rate reductions.
ROIC for the second half of the year was negative 6.3%, impacted by impairments of USD 2.5bn after tax in Maersk Oil and for Q4 there was an underlying loss of USD 9m (profit of USD 1.0bn).
The Group delivered a strong cash flow from operating activities of USD 8.0bn (USD 8.8bn) for the year and USD 2.0bn (USD 2.4bn) in Q4, despite a significant decline in container freight rates and oil prices.
“We are satisfied with the good operational performance across our businesses in 2015. Despite the very challenging market conditions in our industries, all business units delivered positive underlying profits and the Maersk Group achieved an underlying result of USD 3.1bn. Given our expectation that the oil price will remain at a low level for a longer period, we have impaired the value of a number of Maersk Oil’s assets by USD 2.6bn after tax. We will continue to strengthen the Group’s position through strong operational performance and growth investments,” says Group CEO Nils S. Andersen.
