22nd Mar 2016 09:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ocean Wilsons Holdings Ltd on Tuesday said its pretax profit and revenue fell in 2015 amid a challenging economic environment in Brazil and the depreciation of the country's currency.
Ocean Wilsons is a Bermuda-based investment company, which through its Wilson Sons subsidiary operates as a maritime services company in Brazil.
For 2015, Ocean Wilsons said its pretax profit fell to USD69.0 million from USD78.5 million, while revenue declined to USD508.9 million from USD633.5 million.
The company's operations were hurt both by the deteriorating economic environment in Brazil and also by the weakened real, which fell 47% in value against the dollar over the course of the year. This did help operating margins improve to 22% from 14%, due to lower operating costs, but the benefit was offset by the impact on revenue.
Container movements in the year increased 6.2%, while towage, or the number of harbour manoeuvres performed, increased 0.1%.
Ocean Wilsons kept its dividend payout for the year flat at 63.0 cents per share.
"Despite the challenging economic and political environment, the group has achieved another solid operating performance with strong improvements in both operating profit and cash flow," said Chairman José Francisco Gouvêa Vieira.
Ocean Wilsons shares were untraded on Friday morning, having last traded at 738.60 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Ocean Wilsons