Irish Continental Group (ICG) said the decline in the number of passengers and freight it carried in 2009 slowed in the second half of the year, in the midst of what the company described as the most challenging trading conditions seen in Ireland for many decades.
The ferry company said the first six months of the year were weak, as the credit crisis and weakening world trade impacted the business. However, the latter half of the year showed better performance, the year on year reduction in roll on, roll off (RoRo) freight volume falling to -15 per cent compared to 22 per cent in the first half.
The volume of container freight fell 19 per cent year on year in the second half of the year, outperforming the 32 per cent reduction seen in the first six months of the year.
Meanwhile, the number of passenger and cars carried rose in the second half of the year, by 2 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. This compares with a fall of 9 per cent and 6 per cent in the first half.
ICG's revenue fell by 24 per cent to €260.5 million, due to reduced trade flows consumer travel. The company said it reduced operating costs by 24.2 per cent to €209.8 million, leading to Ebidta of €50.7 million compared with €66 million in 2008, an underlying reduction of 18.5 per cent when once-off items were taken into account.
The firm recorded operating profit of €26.5 million, compared with €41.8 million a year earlier. Profit before tax fell from €43 million in 2008 to €24.9 million last year.
"World trade suffered as a global recession took hold while Ireland experienced a reduction in economic activity significantly greater than many of our trading partners," said chairman John McGuckian.
"This clearly had an impact on our passenger business but more significantly on our freight business which is inextricably linked to levels of internationally traded goods in North West Europe."
At 3.30pm, shares in ICG were up 2.2 per cent to €15.80 on the Dublin market.
