Following a sharp depreciation against the US dollar in the preceding half-decade, the Brazilian real rebounded last year. This meant that despite weaker demand for ship building and towing, pre-tax profits at Brazil-focused Ocean Wilsons (OCN) sharply increased due to a foreign exchange gain on its external debt. However, the value of the investment portfolio - which acts as a quasi-hedge against the maritime business - fell by $5.5m to $239m (£190m).
Sales in the core maritime services business fell 10 per cent. Reduced demand from the Brazilian offshore oil and gas industries meant revenue from special towage services was also lower. Overall, the towage business performed 58,376 manoeuvres, down 0.4 per cent on the previous year. Shipping containers moved at Tecon Rio Grande and Tecon Salvador totalled 1.03m, down 0.5 per cent.
The investment portfolio made a return of just 0.3 per cent, underperforming its benchmark of US CPI plus 3 percentage points, so 5.1 per cent for the period. This was partly due to the negative effects of funds that shorted high-performing commodity stocks during the period. This offset the recovery of emerging market investments - accounting for a third of the portfolio's net asset value - which rose 11.2 per cent.
Prior to these results, analysts at Edison expected EPS of 114¢ in 2017.
OCEAN WILSONS HOLDINGS (OCN) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 995p | MARKET VALUE: | £352m | |
| TOUCH: | 985-1,005p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,035p | LOW: 710p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 5.0% | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 1,512¢ | NET DEBT: | 34% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 610 | 99 | 117 | 42 |
| 2013 | 660 | 101 | 107 | 60 |
| 2014 | 634 | 78.5 | 65.6 | 63 |
| 2015 | 509 | 68.7 | 43.7 | 63 |
| 2016 | 457 | 118 | 127 | 63 |
| % change | -10 | +72 | +191 | - |
Ex-div: 11 May Payment: 9 Jun £1=$1.26 | ||||
