Maersk reported a slew of developments over the past week, including the highest ever annual profit made by a Danish company, a major USD 1.68 bn purchase in the road transport seg- ment, and a warning of potentially softer conditions in the second half of the year.
As expected, the Copenhagen-based group reported record-breaking results for 2021 including EBITDA of USD 24 bn – triple the amount of the previous year – while operating profits (EBIT) reached nearly USD 20 bn. It followed a 65% leap in revenue for its Ocean division, which generated 90% of the group’s EBIT.
Meanwhile the group continued its efforts to expand outside ship- ping, agreeing to pay USD 1.68 bn to take over US trucking firm Pilot Freight Services.
The deal will further grow Maersk’s e-commerce freight capacity in North America, with Pilot specialising in the ‘big and bulky’ freight segment. Maersk is buying the company from private equity firm ATL Partners as it seeks to use shipping profits to diversify into logistics where profit margins are both more stable and higher.
But the carrier warned that profits in the current year would be im- pacted by a “normalization” in ocean activities from early in the sec- ond half of the year.
The company’s stock dropped on the news, although its guidance for full-year 2022 puts results more or less in line with profits this year. As in 2021, EBITDA is expected around USD 24 bn, while EBIT is pre- dicted to be slightly lower at USD 19 bn, versus last year’s USD 19.7 bn. The forecast is somewhat lower than analysts’ expectations, how- ever.
Meanwhile, the group said it expected the global container market to expand 2%-4% in 2022, well down on the 7.8% growth it estimated for 2021.
