Asciano, the ports-rail group that was the subject of fevered takeover bids, hasn’t done too well in this last financial year. Its results this year are written in a swathe of red ink.
Statutory revenues for the year ended June 30, 2016, were down 5.4% from $3.63 billion from the $3.84 billion recorded in the previous corresponding period being the year to June 30, 2015.
The group’s statutory Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation & Amortisation (EBITDA) stood at $973 million in the year to June 2016, down 9.2% on the $1,072 million recorded in the year to June 2015.
Statutory Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) after minority interests was down 24.4% to $272.0 million, down from the previous year’s figure of $359.6 million.
Pacific National
Asciano’s rail freight haulage business reported a drop in revenues of 2.3% from 2015 to the 2016 figure of $2.37 billion.
Decline was driven by drops in bulk rail and national intermodal.
Bulk rail (net of coal access) was down 3.8% from $1,331.2 million in 2015 to $1,280.1 million in 2016. National intermodal was down 3.7% from $912.2 million in 2015 down to $878.1 million in 2016.
Asciano commented that declines were driven by falls in export grain and mineral volumes.
TEU (container) volumes hauled by Pacific National increased from 771,500 in the year to June 2015 to 799,100 TEU in the year to June 2016 – a 3.6% increase.
Patrick
As a whole, the revenues of the Patrick ports business fell 9.9% from $1,454.7 million in the prior period to $1,310.1 million in the current period.
Asciano’s Patrick business is further sub-divided for financial reporting purposes into “Terminals & Logistics” T&L and “Bulk & Automotive Port Services” (BAPS).
T&L operates container terminals at East Swanson Dock, Melbourne; Port Botany, Sydney; Fisherman Islands, Brisbane; and at Fremantle. It is also in a joint venture with ACFS Port Logistics. BAPS manages bulk ports and port related logistics at 40 sites in Australia and New Zealand. It also operates a transport, processing and storage business for motor vehicles.
Patrick Terminals & Logistics revenues were a shocker – down 15.2% from the 2015 figure of $692.8 million to $587.5 million in the year to June 30, 2016.
There was a 91% decrease in logistics revenues from the ACFS joint venture – down from $134.2 million in 2015 to a mere $11.9 million in the 2016 year.
Patrick BAPS revenues were down 5.1% from $761.9 million in the previous period to $722.7 million in the current period. Asciano commented that the BAPS fall was due to decline in revenues from the Gorgon project and lower activity levels at a number of bulk port sites along with a decline in revenues from asset sales.
In a letter to shareholders, non-executive director Chris Barlow wrote that: “In a challenging year, the business has delivered a solid performance.
“The business has faced both challenging market conditions and has also had to manage the impact of the protracted transaction process associated with the Asciano takeover. As a result, the impacts of both the transaction and some particular industrial relations issues experienced in the Patrick business during the year have been taken into account as one-off items.”
Elsewhere in the annual results, Asciano described the takeover as having a “significant detrimental impact”.
This article originally appeared in Rail Express affiliate Lloyd’s List Australia.
