Continued strong growth for Eitzen Maritime Services

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Apr 2009

Eitzen Maritime Services ASA yesterday reported its first quarter 2009 results. The group continues its strong growth. First quarter revenue was 86 per cent higher than last year. EBITDA almost tripled compared to last year's first quarter. The acquisition of Dubai based Seven Seas Shipchandlers and an unprecedented order flow are the main factors behind the development.
 EMS posted sales of USD 118.1 million, up from 63.7 million in the first quarter of 2008. EBITDA for the quarter was USD 4.6 million, up from USD 1.6 million in last year's first quarter.
"We experienced a very strong order flow in the first quarter. Supply contracts with the military forces of a number of countries more than compensated for a softening demand from the world's merchant fleet. During the quarter our order backlog grew significantly and our customer portfolio became substantially more robust," said CEO Annette Malm Justad.
 EMS last year became the global leader in ship supply. In the first quarter EMS Ship Supply took an even stronger position in the American markets through the entry into the United Chandlers alliance.
"The strong financial performance suggests that EMS has been successful in its growth strategy. We set out to consolidate the world's maritime services industry three years ago. Going forward we will continue to improve performance and shareholder value through economies of scale and benefiting from improved operational performance in key areas such as purchasing, logistics and global customer accounts. The current economic crisis demonstrates that the large and efficient providers will prevail," Annette Malm Justad said.
 EMS' Ship Management division saw a sideways development in the first quarter. The number of ships under EMS technical and crew management was reduced in the quarter, mainly due to the current economic situation as well as EMS largest ship management customer withdrawing a number of ships in order to rebalance his fleet.
 A number of measures to improve EMS Ship Management's performance have been initiated, including the closing of EMS' Danish operations centre, enabling EMS Ship Management to strengthen the basis for its Singapore and India centres.

Source: Eitzen Maritime Services ASA