In the third quarter (July-September) of 2018, the total number of passengers carried by the Group’s ships increased by 1.2% compared to the same period last year and amounted to a total of 2.9 million passengers. The Group’s revenue for the period increased by EUR 0.9 million compared to last year, totalling EUR 283.6 million. The Group’s unaudited net profit was EUR 46.1 million, being 3.6% less than in the third quarter in 2017. In the third quarter the number of passengers travelling and the number of cargo units transported on the Group’s vessels increased in all the Group’s geographical segments, however higher fuel costs and decreased charter revenues have led to the slightly reduced profit compared to the same period in 2017.
According to the Group’s unaudited 9-month interim statement, the Group carried a total of 7.5 million passengers in the first nine months, which is approximately 70,000 more than in the first nine months of 2017. The Group has earned a EUR 41.8 million net profit in the first nine months, which is a 3.6 million euro decrease compared to the same period last year. The Group’s unaudited revenue for the nine months decreased by 1.5% to EUR 723.2 million compared to the same period last year.
Commenting on the results, Tallink Grupp’s CEO Paavo Nõgene said:
„Tallink Grupp’s core operations developed positively in the third quarter this year – the operating profits of our vessels and hotels increased in the third quarter, but the result was affected by lower charter revenues this year due to the sale of the two Superfast vessels.
“We have continued to grow the number of passengers travelling with us and the number of cargo units transported on Tallink vessels both in the third quarter and in the first nine months of the year as a whole. What’s more, in both June and July this year, we reported transporting the highest numbers of passengers ever for both these months. This is a good result in highly competitive transport and tourism markets.”
The largest number of passengers is transported on the Estonia-Finland routes, with over 3.9 million passengers travelling on the Estonia-Finland routes in the first nine months of the year, a 1.6% increase on the same period last year. Similarly, the largest number of cargo units is also transported on the Estonia-Finland routes with more than 184,000 units of cargo transported on the routes in the first 9 months this year, a 7.3% increase on the same period in 2017. The greatest increases in both passengers and cargo units transported, has taken place on the Latvia-Sweden route, with passenger numbers increasing in the first nine months of 2018 by 8% to over 623,000 passengers and cargo units transported by 34.5% to over 11,000 units.
“Our cargo business has continued to grow steadily in the first nine months of the year with a combined increase of 7.4% in the number of units transported across all our routes. In order to ensure that we continue to grow this part of our business also in the future, we need to continuously develop our offering to our cargo customers and continue to offer an efficient and quality service to them,” Nõgene added.
“Regardless of the good news of increased passenger and cargo volumes this year, the fact is that a combination of significantly increased fuel prices, lower charter revenues, strong competition and a longer than planned docking of one of our vessels in the first quarter this year, have resulted in a net profit for the first nine months of 2018, which is slightly lower compared to the same period in 2017. Based on this, we have some work to do for the rest of this year and will continue with our efforts to achieve the best possible results for this financial year,” Nõgene concluded.
* AS Tallink Grupp and its subsidiaries
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