Danish container shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S (AMKAF.PK,AMKBF.PK) Tuesday said the second-quarter profit increased significantly from last year, supported by a hefty gain. The company lifted its underlying result forecast for the year, and also announced a new share buyback program of up to $1 billion. The stock gained 5 percent in early morning trading.
Profit attributable to the company surged to $2.25 billion from last year's $785 million.
The latest result was positively impacted by a $2.8 billion gain from the sale of the majority share of Dansk Supermarked Group.
The impairment announced in July has reduced Maersk Oil's valuation of Brazilian assets to $0.6 billion from $2.3 billion.
Excluding discontinued operations, impairment losses and divestment gains, underlying profit rose to $1.3 billion from $1.0 billion, due to the performance of Maersk Line, APM Terminals and Maersk Oil.
Profit before financial items fell to $533 million from $1.653 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue grew to $11.949 billion from $11.687 billion in the prior year. The company attributed the 2.3 percent growth to higher container volumes and increased oil entitlement production at a higher average oil price.
Profit increased in Maersk Line, amid lower unit costs. Maersk Oil made a loss due to impairments on Brazilian assets.
Looking ahead, the Group still expects a result for 2014 significantly above $3.8 billion reported in 2013.
The underlying result is now expected to be around $4.5 billion, a rise from the previous expectation of around $4.0 billion, that excluded discontinued operations, impairment losses and divestment gains.
The Board has decided to repurchase shares up to 5.6 billion Danish kroner or $1 billion within the coming 12 months. By doing this, the company plans to meet obligations arising from employee share option programs.
The share buyback will be carried out in several phases, with the first phase running from September 1 to November 30.
The stock added 5 percent in early morning trading in Copenhagen at 14,160.00 kroner.
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