Hutchison Port Q1 Profit Slumps 70%
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Monday, April 24, 2017
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT) suffered a 69.9 percent plunge in first-quarter net profit to to HK$166.9 million ($24.4 million USD) from the corresponding period a year earlier.
The Hong Kong-based port operator said it was largely due to the absence of a government rent and rates refund previously received.
Excluding a one-off rent and rates refund, however, net profit would be 15.7 percent lower than that of last year, said the manager of the container port business trust in a statement.
Singapore-listed HPHT said that revenue for the quarter fell 6.3 percent to HK$2.58 billion ($331.6 million USD), as throughput at some of its key terminals was hit by a decrease in transshipment cargoes.
Outbound cargoes to the United States continued to grow in the first quarter of 2017, driven by the moderate expansion in economic activity in the U.S. with the support of strong employment data.
However, there remains a high level of uncertainty over the domestic and global ramifications on the U.S. economy and trade in 2017 as the new U.S. administration commences the roll-out of its fiscal policies and initiatives, the company said.