HHLA (Hamburger Hafen) Aktie

Thank you very much, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, and thank you for joining our conference on the financial year 2025 results. My name is Jeroen Eijsink, and this is the first time I'm addressing you in my role as Chief Executive Officer of HHLA. I'm very pleased to be here today together with my fellow Executive Board member, Annette Geiss, to guide you through HHLA's performance in the 2025 financial year.

Over the past 6 months since assuming the role on October 1, 2025, I've taken the time to get to know HHLA in depth. This has included spending a great deal of my time at our terminals in Hamburg as well as visiting our European subsidiaries such as Metrans and PLT Italy. Above all, I have met many of the people who ensure around the clock that supply chains continue to function. What I have seen during this time is a company with strong substance and committed teams. HHLA is operating in a challenging environment, but it is well positioned to address the challenges ahead. At the same time, I have also gained a clear understanding of where we need to improve and where we will focus our efforts going forward.

Let me now briefly summarize the past year 2025. The year was shaped by a demanding market environment. Persistent geopolitical tensions and continued economic weakness in Germany weighed on supply chains and reduced planning certainty. At the same time, global trade flow shifted with declining volumes on North American routes and growth in Far East trades, particularly with China. Another factor during the year was the reorganization of liner services following the formation of new shipping alliances, most notably the launch of The Gemini Cooperation by Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk. In addition, MSC gradually shifted its Hamburg services to HHLA over the course of 2025. For the Port of Hamburg, this resulted in a noticeable reallocation of traffic flows, while all major alliances continue to be handled reliably by HHLA. In this dynamic environment, we focused on strengthening our operational base.

We continued to modernize our Hamburg container terminals, building on our automation expertise at CTA and advancing our reorganization and expansion measures at CTB. At the same time, we strengthened our European Intermodal network by further expanding the activities of our Rail subsidiary, Metrans. For instance, we announced the modernization of our terminal in Slovakia and laid the foundation stone for a new site in Hungary in 2025. Most recently, we secured a 50% stake in a Romanian terminal to establish our first intermodal facility there. With investments like these, Metrans strengthened its position in Southeastern Europe.

Even in a challenging geopolitical environment, we remain committed to our long-term strategic priorities. These include our continued engagement in Ukraine marked by the acquisition of a majority stake of 60% in the Intermodal Terminal Batiovo. Operationally, this all translated into solid growth. Container throughput increased by more than 5%, while Container transport rose by almost 11%. Supported by this volume growth, both revenue and EBIT made good progress. Revenue in the Port Logistics subgroup increased by about 10% and EBIT rose by more than 20%. At the same time, profit after tax and minority interests was burdened by a one-off and noncash tax effect. It was not cash-effective, but had a significant impact on net income for the year.

Against this backdrop, the Executive Board, together with the Supervisory Board have decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting that no dividend will be distributed for the 2025 financial year. The focus remains on financing capabilities and a disciplined capital allocation to support the persistently high-level of strategic investments ahead.

With that, I would now like to hand over to Annette, who will take you through the performance of our segments in more detail, starting with the Container segment.

Thank you, Jeroen, and good afternoon, everyone. Let's move directly to the performance of our Container segment. As Jeroen has already mentioned, we recorded overall growth in container throughput of 5.4%. Volumes at the Hamburg container terminals increased by 4.8% to almost 6 million TEU. The key drivers in overseas traffic were volumes to and from the Far East, especially China, as well as South America, Africa, Australia and the Middle East. By contrast, the North America shipping region declined strongly.

Volumes in feeder traffic increased significantly year-on-year. This development was supported mainly by traffic with Finland, Poland and other German ports. However, cargo volumes from Estonia, Latvia and the U.K. declined. The proportion of seaborne handling by feeders was slightly above the previous year's level at 19.6%. At our international container terminals, throughput volume rose strongly by 19.2% to 339,000 TEU. Especially in Italy, we saw remarkable volume growth at the HHLA PLT Italy, which really makes us proud.

At CTO, we resumed seaborne handling in the third quarter of 2024 and we were able to continue operations throughout 2025, also, still with certain limitations. This base effect leads to the significant year-on-year increase expected for 2025. Volumes at the multifunctional terminal at HHLA TK Estonia declined slightly on the other hand. Segment revenue climbed significantly by 9.0% year-on-year to EUR 843.2 million. This was supported by higher throughput volumes and beneficial shift in the modal split. On top of that, HHLA's international container terminals made a positive contribution to revenue growth with a strong performance of PLT Italy standing out once again. EBIT costs increased by 11.5% compared to the previous year. This was mainly driven by extensive automation efforts, the positive volume trend and correspondingly higher capacity utilization.

Personnel expenses also increased, reflecting union negotiated wage settlement and the additional deployment of personnel from the general port operations pool. In addition, expenses for consultancy and related services as well for purchase services, rose strongly. As a result of necessary investments, depreciation expenses increased moderately. The earnings safeguard measures implemented at the Hamburg container terminal since March 2023 had an offsetting effect, but were not sufficient to fully compensate for the cost increases described. Against this backdrop, EBIT declined by 6.4% to EUR 73.6 million, while the EBIT margin decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 8.7%.

So let's move on now to the Intermodal segment. Transport volumes in the Intermodal segment made particularly good progress over the year. As a result, container transport rose by 10.9% to 198,200 TEU compared to the previous year. Rail transport rose year-on-year by 11.2% to 171900 TOU. This strong volume growth was largely driven by traffic with the North German seaports as well as traffic in the German-speaking countries. Moreover, the transport volumes of Roland Spedition in the previous year were only included from June onwards. Road transport rose significantly by 8.7% to 263,000 TEU. This development was helped in particular by the recovery of transport volumes in the Hamburg region.

With an increase of 12% to EUR 797 million, revenue outperformed the volume development. In addition to routine price adjustments, this was partly due to the further increase in Rail share of the total intermodal transport volume from 86.5% to 86.7%. EBIT increased by 23.9% to EUR 103.7 million. The main reason for this strong EBIT growth was the increase in transport volumes despite an opposing effect from ongoing operational difficulties caused by construction work on major transport roads and congestion at the North-German seaports.

Let's turn briefly to the Logistics segment, where we have pooled for instant vehicle logistics consultancy as well as digital and leasing services. In the reporting period, the consolidated companies generated a revenue of EUR 92.8 million, representing an increase of 10.9% compared to the previous year. The rise is attributable to the leasing company for intermodal traffic and to vehicle logistics. After reporting a loss in the previous year, the segment returned to a positive operating result of EUR 6.5 million in 2025. The performance within the segment varied across the individual companies. Whereas the Leasing company and Vehicle Logistics made strong earning contributions, our Innovative business activities fell short of the prior year result. At-equity earnings also made encouraging progress, increasingly by 27.5% to EUR 5.7 million in the reporting period.

Coming back to the Port Logistics subgroup as a whole, let's have a look now at our cash flow development. The reporting period, cash flow from operating activities of EUR 257 million mainly comprised earnings before interest and taxes as well as write-downs and write-ups on nonfinancial assets. The main items with an opposing effect were interest payments, trade receivables and other assets as well as income tax payments. Investing activities resulted in a net cash outflow of EUR 307 million, up almost EUR 26 million on the previous year. This development was largely due to payments for investments in large-scale equipment at the Hamburg container terminals as part of our efficiency program.

As a result, free cash flow of the Port Logistics subgroup was a negative amount of EUR 50 million. Cash flow from financing activities totaled EUR 0.4 million. On the one hand, new financial loans of EUR 140 million, on the other hand, opposing effects from dividend payments and settlement obligations to shareholders of the parent company and to noncontrolling interest as well as from repayments on bank loans and payments for the redemption of lease liabilities. Overall, our available liquidity at the end of December 2025 remained at a robust level of EUR 180 million.

Before I hand back to Jeroen, I would like to briefly address our dividend proposal. At this year's Annual General Meeting, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board will propose, not to distribute a dividend for the 2025 financial year, neither for the Class A nor the Class S shares. As we already mentioned before, earnings per share are at a very low level. At the same time, we are currently investing at a high level in order to modernize our terminals and ensure that our infrastructure is fit for the years ahead. Against this backdrop, we have decided to retain the available funds within the company to safeguard our ability to invest and to finance our projects. This represents a responsible prioritization in favor of the long-term stability and future strength of HHLA. That concludes my remarks.

For the review of our ESG performance, an update on the squeeze-out and an outlook for the 2026 financial year, let me now hand back to you, Jeroen.

Thank you, Annette. Let me start with the sustainability topic. Sustainability is not an image project for us. It's increasingly becoming a hard competitive factor. Our customers are paying much closer attention to low-carbon supply chains, and we are actively helping them achieve their targets.

To do so, we are making investments in three key areas: energy-efficient systems, electrified equipment fleets and automated processes with significantly reduced emissions. There are already very concrete examples of this across our operations. At CTA, our tractor units are now fully electrified. At CTB, automated guided vehicles are helping us to significantly reduce diesel consumption, and at CTT, we are operating hybrid van carriers that are already designed to be converted to battery or hydrogen power. As a result, almost half of our total energy consumption is already covered by renewable sources today. This clearly demonstrates that technological innovation and sustainable solutions go hand-in-hand at HHLA. This is not only an ambitious aspiration, it's operational reality.

Accordingly, this is also reflected in our EU taxonomy indicators, where we once again achieved very strong results. All of these measures are decisive steps towards our long-term objective to achieve climate-neutral production across the entire HHLA Group by 2040.

Before we turn to the outlook for 2026, I would like to briefly address another topic that has been high on our agenda since the beginning of the year. In addition to our operational and financial performance, the squeeze-out request announced in early January by the Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft SE, HHLA's majority shareholder has required considerable attention. So where do we currently stand in the process? The amount of the cash settlement is currently being determined by an independent expert. Following this, the squeeze-out will require approval by the Annual General Meeting in June. Of course, the Executive Board will accompany this process in a responsible and constructive manner.

Let me conclude by briefly addressing the current market situation and our outlook for the 2026 financial year. Recent developments in the Middle East once again pose significant challenges for international shipping. They continue to affect global trade routes, sailing schedules and supply chains and as a consequence, also have an impact on European ports and logistics corridors. At present, we are seeing a market rise in uncertainty. Shipping lines are adjusting schedules at short notice, opting for alternative routes and in some cases, accepting extensive detours. This results in longer transit times, higher operating costs and greater operational complexity along the supply chain.

Against this backdrop, the outlook shown on this slide is subject to a degree -- a high degree of uncertainty. At the same time, the progress we've made in recent years in modernizing our infrastructure and expanding our European network provides a solid basis for our expectations for the current financial year. Overall, we expect a positive development for the current financial year. We anticipate a significant year-on-year increase in container throughput and a strong year-on-year increase in container transport. Moreover, strong revenue growth is expected from the Port Logistics subgroup compared to 2025.

EBIT is likely to be between EUR 160 million and EUR 180 million. To further increase efficiency and expand capacity in the Container and Intermodal segments, capital expenditure in the Port Logistics subgroup will be in the range of EUR 400 million to EUR 450, around half of this amount will be invested in the Container segment with the majority going to the Hamburg container terminals. These investments will focus on the efficient use of existing terminal space in the Port of Hamburg and the expansion of our foreign terminals. The other half will be used primarily to further expand our own transport and handling capacities for our Intermodal activities. With this outlook for the current year, I would like to close my remarks on our 2025 financial results.

Annette and I are both happy to take your questions now.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jeroen Eijsink for any closing remarks.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your interest in HHLA. Before we conclude, I would like to leave you with a closing thought.

HHLA remains a central pillar of European logistics. Our international network strengthens our resilience, broadens our positioning, enhances our competitiveness. Our investments consistently focus on reliability, efficiency and sustainability, guided by our commitment to continuously improve customer satisfaction. We are determined to stay on this course. Thank you.