Thessaloniki Port Authority S A : Annual presentation for the financial performance of fiscal year 2016 to the analysts

ThPA SA CEO, Dr Dimitrios Makris presented Company's Financial Results of fiscal year 2016 to financial analysts on Thursday 8th of June 2017.

Despite the particular difficulties faced in 2016, the company presented resilience, with turnover of 48.061.529 Euros compared to 50.881.605 Euros in 2015. Although, turnover recorded a decrease of 5.54%, rebounded significantly from the adverse effects of the negative developments in the first half of 2016. During this period, there were 32 consecutive days of strike and an additional 4 weeks' abstention from working on weekends and overtime by port employees due to the privatization of the company. Furthermore, the railway connection to Skopje closed for 67 days causing serious problems for bulk and general cargo transportation. In addition, for approximately 20 days the road connection to Bulgaria was blocked making container transport impossible.

However, ThPA SA managed to maintain its market position in 2016, achieving high profitability ratio and presenting earnings, as a percentage of the turnover, among the highest of the ATHEX listed companies, with gross profit of 46,13%, EBITDA at 49,68%, earnings before taxes 43,86% and earnings after taxes to 29,31%.

Revenue by operating segment is distributed as follows: Container Terminal operations amounted to 30.602.483 Euros, corresponding to 63,67% of the total turnover, Conventional Port activities amounted to 15.629.672 Euros corresponding to 32,52% of the total turnover, 264.461 Euros for the Passengers Terminal representing 0,55% of the total turnover and 1.564.914 Euros for sites exploitation representing 3,26% of the total revenue.

ThPA SA, is a healthy company with zero lending. In 2016 there was a significant increase of the invested reserves by 29,69%, from 55.199.321 Euros to 71.586.788 Euros, with cash reserves amounting to 75.566.103 Euros.

The Company's dividend policy aims to satisfy the shareholders along with the creation of reserves for the financing of its investments. The proposed dividend of earnings for 2016 is 0,49 per share.

It was of particular importance the approval of the Master Plan of the Port of Thessaloniki by the company's Board of Directors and its submission to Ports Planning and Development Committee (E.S.A.L.) of the Ministry of Marine and Island Policy, following consultation with the city's stakeholders. The Master Plan reflects the long-term planning of ThPA SA to increase capacity in order to serve larger vessels, to support entrepreneurship and interaction with the city. E.S.A.L. approved the Master Plan of Th.P.A S.A. at its meeting on 13.03.2017. At the same time, a 5-year Business Plan was approved.

The contribution of ThPA SA's management to the international tender procedure for the sale of 67% of the share capital of the company, stressed the role of Thessaloniki Port as a Gateway Port in Southeastern Europe. The announcement, on 24.04.2017, by HRADF of the association of 'Deutsche Invest Equity Partners GmbH', 'Belterra Investments Ltd' and 'Terminal Link SAS' as the bidder of the tender, indicates a new development phase at the Port, creating the conditions to upgrade the Port of Thessaloniki in favor of the national economy and employment.

Taking into account the total throughput of the first four (4) months of 2017, it becomes clear that ThPA SA achieved a total return to the cargo volumes handling. Container throughput is increased by 7,5% and Conventional cargo throughput is increased by 30.2%, with an upward trend for both segments for the first semester of 2017, compared to the same period of 2016. Current statistics result forecasts in the range of 360.000 TEUs for the Container Terminal and 4.000.000 tones for the Conventional Port. Based on the above data, it is estimated that 2017 will be the year with the highest throughput in the Container Terminal of the last ten years and the Conventional port throughput of the highest in the last five years.