Hamburger Hafen und Logistik Aktiengesellschaft (HHFA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you very much, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our conference call presenting our financial results for the first 9 months of 2022. Before my colleague, Roland Lappin, takes you through the financials in detail, I would like to highlight our key achievements in the first 9 months of this year and to talk about the market environment in which we are currently operating. The 2022 financial year has presented significant challenges for the global logistics industry. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in the Ukraine have caused a great deal of suffering for many people. The latter has also resulted in macroeconomic turbulence and geopolitical instability. Inflation in Europe reached levels not seen for a decade, and disrupted supply chain persisted and continued to deter operations at terminals and in hinterland traffic. Against this backdrop, ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate the compromise that has been finally found by the German government regarding Cosco's potential shareholding in CTT. To an uncharacteristic degree, HHLA was dragged into the political debate about the future of German-Chinese relations. The agreement reached over 1 year ago to sell a minority interest of 35% in the company operating HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort to the Chinese company, Cosco Shipping Ports Limited, was rejected by certain parts of the German government during the investment review process. The finally achieved political compromise permits our long-standing Chinese partner, CSPL, to acquire a stake of up to 25% in CTT's operating company subject to conditions imposed by German government. That result would certainly strengthen HHLA's future viability and secure jobs in the Port of Hamburg. We will renegotiate our existing agreement with CSPL in the near future and continue to successfully develop our business relationship with Cosco that has already lasted for 40 years since 1982. Following several strike days in 2020, the collective bargaining creation for German seaports were successfully concluded in the third quarter. Negotiations were extremely tough this year. I'm therefore delighted that the bargaining parties could agree on a 24-month period, which gives us some security for the next years. However, bargaining parties also agreed on various ancillary conditions this time. Having said that, the increase in the second year depends, amongst other things, on the achievement of a certain total tank volume across all German seaports. Moreover, there is an inflation clause. This depilate that inflation amounts to 5.5% and more in the coming year, both parties have the right to terminate the agreement. This compromise provides both the company and the employees with the planning security at a time characterized by numerous uncertainties about the future and the economic development. Success like these are important in order to regain reliability as the logistics industry environment has been highly volatile for more than 2 years. Despite all the external challenges, HHLA generated a solid result in the first 9 months of 2022. The ongoing disruptions in the supply chain continued to lead to significantly increase 12x for import and export containers in the Port of Hamburg in the first 9 months of 2022. Thanks to a high and reliable deployment of staff and technology at our Hamburg facility, we succeeded in significantly reducing ship congestion in the German [indiscernible]. However, although there was some relief in the third quarter compared to the first half of the year containers continued to clog up our terminal facility. This development is not limited to the ports. Delays in the supply chain also have an impact on the hinterland and affect the transport flows of all intermodal providers. Our rail subsidiary, Metrans, is no exception. Nevertheless, Metrans once again made an important contribution to earnings. Against this backdrop, Container throughput declined significantly in the first 9 months to 4,869,000 TEU. Intermodal transport was also affected by the situation. Container transport rose only slightly by 0.0 to 1.266 TEU in the reporting period. Even though revenue in the Port Logistics subgroup rose significantly, there was an even stronger increase in operating expenses. As a result, the operating result of the Port Logistics subgroup declined by 4% to EUR 145.3 million in the reporting period. On that note, let me hand over to Roland for more detailed comments on our financial performance in the first 9 months.

Yes. Thank you, Angela, and good afternoon, everyone. I would like to start with the development of the Container segment. In the first 9 months of 2022, Container throughput at all HHLA container terminals turned negative with a drop in volumes of 5.7 to approximately 4.9 million TEU. Throughput at our terminals in Hamburg declined by 2.3% to approximately 3.2 million TEU. The development was driven, on the one hand, by limited handling capacity as a result of high storage utilization due to the sharp increase in dwell times for import and export containers. On the other hand, reduced cargo volumes from the North America, and above all, Far East shipping regions with the exception of China took its toll on container handling volumes. But let me have a close look at our competitive environment. Yesterday, the Benelux port, for instance, posted a decline in terms of volume in the first 9 months by 4.4% or 5% [ accordingly ]. And this is the competing environment that you have to factor in, in order to assess how well HHLA did in the current market environment. And not to forget that our competitor in Germany posted a sharp decline in volumes after 6 months in a range of minus 7%, if I'm not wrong. Among our international container terminals, Tallinn saw strong volume growth due to the increased use of the terminal as an alternative to Russian ports. Our Odessa terminal is still closed, but remains operational. However, despite encouraging volume growth, the terminals in Tallinn and Trieste only partly offset the decline in volumes at the Odessa terminal. Nevertheless, segment revenue increased significantly by 5.4% to EUR 653.2 million compared to the previous year. This was due to the strong increase in storage fees and our container terminals as well as additional revenue from railroad and general cargo handling at PLT Italy. EBIT costs increased by 3.8% compared to the first 9 months last year due to higher personnel deployment and personnel costs resulting from the collective bargaining agreement in the third quarter of 2022. Cost of materials also increased, owing to higher fuel prices and increased electricity and fuel consumption caused by high storage utilization. On top of this, EBIT costs were burdened by higher service and consulting expenses, in particular, for the efficiency program. Altogether, these developments resulted in an EBIT increase of plus 12.8% to EUR 121.7 million with a double-digit EBIT margin of 18.6%. The next slide shows the development of our Intermodal segment. Unfortunately, the disruptions to the transport change did not stop at the seaport terminals, but also had a growing impact on hinterland transport over the year. Despite this, however, our intermodal companies achieved a slight increase of approximately 1% in total transport volumes. While road transport declined sharply by 9.4%, rail transportation volume lost growth momentum in the second quarter and grew moderately by 3.3% year-on-year. The growth was mainly driven by traffic from the North German seaports, strong Polish traffic and the German-speaking countries. By contrast, traffic to the Adriatic Sea ports remained slightly below previous year level. Revenue increased by 12.6% to EUR 431.4 million, mainly due to the higher rail share of HHLA's transport intermodal segment volume of 83.3% as well as temporary surcharges, which were implemented to partially offset the sharp rise in energy crisis. Despite this positive top line development, EBIT was heavily impacted by operational interruptions due to the ongoing disruptions to the supply chains, stressed rail infrastructure due to windstorm damage and construction work as well as a strong increase in energy cost, which could only be passed on to the market after some delay. And as a reminder, last year's figures included a positive one-off of EUR 11 million from the higher route price subsidy granted retrospectively. Overall, the operating result decreased by 19.5% to EUR 64 million in the first 9 months of 2022, and the EBIT margin fell by 6 percentage points to approximately 15%. Let's now turn briefly to our smaller segment, the Logistics segment. In the first 9 months of 2022, the consolidated companies reported revenue of EUR 56.8 million and that exceeded the prior year's figure by approximately 10%. Consulting activities and vehicle logistics, in particular, contributed to the positive development. However, EBIT development was impacted, in particular, by an impairment in the field of our new activities, namely bionic, and this resulted in a loss of EUR 7.5 million. At-equity earnings remained positively at EUR 2.6 million. Coming back to the Port Logistics subgroup as a whole, let's have a look at our cash flow development. Cash flow from operating activities decreased by approximately EUR 34 million to EUR 208.1 million as of 30th of September 2022. The main reasons for this was lower pension provisions compared to the previous year due to the increase in interest rates, the increase in trade receivables and higher income tax payments. Investing activities resulted in a net cash outflow of EUR 70.8 million. This development was mainly due to the higher proceeds from short-term deposits compared to the same period last year. As a result, free cash flow decreased by EUR 43.7 million to EUR 137.4 million compared to previous year's figures. Cash flow from financing activities totaled to EUR 133.3 million. This was EUR 55.1 million higher than the previous year due to the higher dividend payments and higher settlement obligations paid to noncontrolling interest. Overall, our available liquidity as of 30th of September 2022 remained at a comfortable level of EUR 188.5 million. On that note, let me hand back to Angela for her comments on the outlook.

Thank you, Roland. Ladies and gentlemen, the solid result of the first 9 months 2022 makes us confident that we will achieve our EBIT target for the full financial year. However, due to the uneven development at segment level in the third quarter, we have adjusted our forecast for the 2022 financial year compared to the expectations published in the 2020 half yearly financial report. Against the backdrop of the ongoing disruptions to supply chains, we have lowered our expectation for overall volume development in 2022. With regard to Container throughput, we now expect a significant year-on-year decline and for Container transport, we now assume a slight increase compared to the previous year. As a consequence of the positive revenue development to date, we have raised our forecast and regard a significant increase in revenue as possible for the Port Logistics subgroup in 2022. Revenue in the Intermodal segment is now expected to increase strongly. While in the Container segment, an unchanged moderate increase is expected due to a further related flattening of average revenues. Our expectation for the operating results remains unchanged. An EBIT of between EUR 160 million and EUR 195 million is still regarded as possible for the Port Logistics subgroup in the current financial year. For the Container segment, we expect EBIT to be on a par with the previous year due to the temporary increase in average revenue resulting from storage fees. By contrast, a significant decline is expected in the Intermodal segment due to ongoing supply chain disruptions and their impact on operational performance. These adjustments show that it is not only our container terminal that are stressed by disrupted transport chain, but also our hinterland systems, which are badly affected as well. And some additions to plant and equipment plant for fiscal 2022 will be postponed due to the following year. Capital expenditure has been adjusted accordingly. It is now expected to range between EUR 180 million to EUR 230 million for the Port Logistics subgroup compared to the EUR 270 million to EUR 300 million previously. This concludes my remarks, and I would like -- I would be happy to answer your questions -- or we would be happy to answer your questions now. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We have the first question from Marc Zeck from Stifel.

Just a quick one on the current guidance. So it feels like that the lower end of the guidance, EUR 160 million, imply quite a very pessimistic outcome for Q4. Why haven't you really -- what is your expectation for Q4? Why do you still see that EUR 160 million being realistic or a risk factor, given that even in the second quarter of 2020 when the pandemic hit, you made these EUR 16 million or EUR 17 million, which is more or less the difference to the EUR 160 million that is the lower end of the current EBIT guidance. So why didn't you just wrap the lower part of the guidance? Second question would be on the wage negotiation that you concluded and the inflation clause. And you said that if inflation is above 5% or so, then both parties might walk away from the negotiation -- or from the agreement. Could you specify which inflation index you intend to use specifically like the European way of measuring inflation or the general way of measuring inflation. And then is it for '23 as a whole? So only after '23 when we get inflation numbers, then both parties might retroactively walk away from the agreement? And then what happens with the wage payments that have already been paid or so how will this be handled? If you could just give me an idea of how this is -- yes, what -- how this is going on.

Well, maybe starting with the wage discussion. As it is based in Germany, it's the calculation as well based for the German measurement. And it's a twofold condition. It's one has the inflation, and the second one is it needs to go over a certain -- or go under a certain throughput measurement, which was established between the 2 parties. So it's a twofold condition that needs to be met or basically not met. And usually, once you start negotiation as we have done it as well this year, you have -- depending on the length of the negotiation, you can always start to adjust the wages retrospective. With regards to the last quarter, well, we are not pessimistic. But as nobody of us knows exactly what's coming up right now, we have outlined a cautious approach. As I'm right now in Singapore traveling with the Chancellor from Vietnam to Singapore here with discussions as well with the APA Group, there -- we have to factor in that there might be regulations in Europe and in Germany for transportation of -- reference for transportation of coal. So far, we don't expect any hurdles for us, but we don't know yet whether capacity-wise we get any challenges.

Two short additions. With regard to the definition, we rely on the Harmonised Consumer Price Index method. And again, we remain within the range released to the market, and this is reconfirmed with the Q3 results.

Yes. I definitely understand that you're comfortably within the range. It just seems to me that the lower end is, yes, you adjust EUR 50 million -- EUR 15 million, 1-5 million, below the lower end and usually to at least EUR 20 million in the last quarter. So just it seems to me that the low end might be -- yes.

Yes. We leave it for you and we leave it open until we release the preliminary final results for the full year. But it goes without saying, and this we'd address to you again that we reconfirmed the range and we won't speculate about where we end up within the range. I think this is for the full year results.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Nikolas Mauder from Kepler Cheuvreux.

First one is, again, on the guidance. Can you share your assumptions for storage fee impact in the fourth quarter? Should we factor in a sequential decline as supply chains normalize even in Northern Europe perhaps? And why -- sort of why will the, let's say, Intermodal EBIT come down strongly in the fourth quarter, if I got that correctly. That's the first set of questions. Second one, the decline in Container throughput volumes accelerated in the third quarter. Year-on-year, you mentioned 2 main reasons: congestion at the terminal and lower volumes coming to the terminal. Can you maybe split that qualitatively into what was the main reason? And thirdly, I didn't fully hear whether the change in CapEx guidance is completely a shift in year towards 2023 or whether it's also a reaction towards worsened prospects going forward?

Well, let me try to start with the third question or your last question. I think we are affected by the ongoing disruptions in the transport chain. This means we are facing some delays with regard to equipment that we ordered. So it's not the right time for skipping CapEx components, it's more to accept that we are facing longer delivery times than initially contracted and this was the main reason for the adjustment in the current year. With regard to adjustments of CapEx going forward, this remains to be seen. But you know the characteristics in principle of the business model. We have several times shown that we have all the freedom to adjust them in line with the economic development, and I do not see that this should alter going forward. Your question regarding the decline or further development of revenue per TEU in the Container segment, I think it's evident if you look into the volume development short term, and this means Q3 onwards, it has started to decline. And you shouldn't be surprised, as a consequence, what we already announced to the market and explained to the market weeks back, this way or the other, a decline of revenue per TEU that has peaked in Q3. Intermodal, your second question, of course, the development is very much related in terms of EBIT line, very much related to the operational efficiency you could reach in the current environment. And Angela outlined already a lot of obstacles we have to face with in this uptake, this way or the other impact negatively in the current environment, the achievable efficiency and productivity. And this is very much responsible for the EBIT margin development, and I do not see that this will improve in Q4. And you added a third block of questions regarding breakdown of, could you repeat your question, please?

Yes. So in the third quarter, Container throughput volumes, let's say, for the whole group, I know about the details, gathered negative momentum and you flagged a congestion at the terminal as well as lower volumes coming to the terminal as potential reasons. So is it more the clogged up terminals or the lower volumes coming that drove the decline year-on-year in the third quarter?

If you look at the queue in the German [indiscernible] that is declining. I think the high utilization is fading out month by month and does not significantly impact the throughput development going forward. This is the best guess I would address to you. So we come closer to the point that you can take the volume development as an indicator for the prosperity going forward. And the other thing, more details, I think it doesn't make sense to discuss here in this call.

Seems to be no further questions at this time, and I hand back to Ms. Titzrath.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Roland, my colleague, for his services to HHLA for almost -- more than 20 years. As announced at the beginning of the year, our Chief Financial Officer and valued colleague, Dr. Roland Lappin, will be leaving the company at the end of January 2023. Today's analyst call was, therefore, his last in quite a long series of quarterly calls. He has guided HHLA through many challenging phases and has been decisive in putting the group on its current sound financial footing and setting the stage for the company's next phase of growth. With this, I would like to say thank you and wish you all the best. Bye.