Impairment losses push HPH Trust into the red in Q4, FY14

IMPAIRMENT losses dragged Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) into the red for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2014, marking a net loss of HK$18.6 billion (S$3.2 billion) compared to a net profit of HK$334.8 million in the year-ago period.

An impairment of HK$19 billion was incurred during the quarter against the goodwill allocated to a cash generating unit (CGU) in Hong Kong, which was adversely affected by the uncertainties in the global economy and demand, the continued challenging trading environment faced by the Hong Kong operations and labour cost pressures.

Excluding the goodwill impairment impact, net profit for the fourth quarter would have risen 16.5 per cent to HK$390 million.

The impairment loss also pushed HPH Trust's full-year earnings into negative territory with a net loss of HK$17.19 billion, after registering a net profit of HK$1.67 billion in 2013.

HPH Trust posted a 2.2 per cent rise in revenue to HK$3.19 billion for the fourth quarter and a 1.9 per cent increase in revenue to HK$12.62 billion for the full year.

During the fourth quarter, the container throughput of Yantian International Container Terminals in Shenzhen rose 9.2 per cent year on year, mainly due to the growth in transshipment, US and empty cargoes.

But the container throughput of Hongkong International Terminals contracted one per cent in the fourth quarter from a year ago, primarily due to weaker intra-Asia cargoes but was partially offset by higher trans-shipment volume.

For the second half of 2014, HPH Trust is making a distribution of 22.30 Hong Kong cents per unit, unchanged from the same period in 2013.

Units of HPH Trust rose 1.6 per cent to 97 Singapore cents on Friday.

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