Operating profit and earnings at Irish Continental Group fell in the first half of the year, as higher fuel bills outweighed a marginal rise in turnover.
The group recorded earnings before interest tax and depreciation of €14.3 million, down from €16.1 million in the same period in 2011, and operating profit slipped to €5.1 million from €6.5 million in 2011.
Revenue for the period was €127.1 million compared with €126.6 million in the same period in 2011, a rise of 0.4 per cent. Fuel bills rose by €4.5 million in the six-month period to €28.9 million.
Freight volumes were down for the first half of the year, but passenger traffic was up by just under 1 per cent.
Chairman John B McGuckian described the company’s performance as “robust” .
“While freight remains weak due to the economic background our tourism and car business has benefited from reduced competitor capacity although fuel costs remain a headwind,” he said.
The first half of the year is seasonally less profitable for the firm.
ICG also announced it would sell its container shipping subsidiary Feederlink for more than €20 million. Feederlink, which provides container shipping services on routes between the port of Rotterdam and UK, will be sold to Danish company Unifeeder.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/850d265f-5198-4767-aa62-36b3b810588d.jpg)