UK shipbroker Clarksons has increased profit in 2014 as revenue grew 20%.

The London-listed company, which took over Norway’s RS Platou in February, said net earnings were £17.2m ($25.92m) from £15.3m in 2013

Revenue was up at £237.9m against £198m the year before.

The 2014 result includes acquisition costs of £7m.

The company said the performance was ahead of expectations and CEO Andi Case added: “Shipping and offshore is a multi-cyclical business and once again we face extremely challenging conditions in some markets.

“We continue to see a flight to quality and believe that our extended tool box underpinned by our strong balance sheet ensures we are best placed for long-term growth.”

Shipbroking produced revenue of $302m, from $251m in 2013, while operating profit was £34.1m, against £27.5m.

Chairman James Hughes-Hallett said 2015 would be a “transformational year” for Clarksons as Platou is integrated into the company.

“We have a solid forward order book and, despite heightened challenges in some of our markets, we are confident that our proven strategy and best in class service will continue to provide enhanced returns for our shareholders,” he added.

The company also revealed that Platou made a profit of £20.2m in 2014, from revenue of £115.3m.

Bulker volumes rise

In a dire dry bulk market, the broker said it had “significantly increased” the volume of fixing worldwide.

But it added that with continued new ship deliveries expected in 2015, demand growth would struggle to correct vessel over-supply unless new ships are delayed or older ones scrapped.

Clarksons described the boxship market as difficult, with charter market earnings remaining depressed.

Its team concluded a number of projects on post-panamax vessels including several long-term sale and charter-backs and newbuilding contracts where it also sourced the financing and arranged post-delivery time charters.

“As a result of these developments we grew our chartering performance year-on-year and continued to increase market share,” it added.

Tankers stronger

Crude tankers were considerably stronger, it said, while LR2 earnings from the Persian Gulf to Asia were up 34\%.

Looking ahead, it added that MR deliveries are expected to be maintained at a relatively high level, potentially exceeding the number of deliveries seen in 2014.

“It is also possible that a stronger market for dirty trading aframaxes will draw some LR2s back to that market sector, particularly as the dirty trading aframax fleet will otherwise continue to shrink,” it added.

Its sale and purchase operation continued its positive momentum, with a “pleasing” number of deals concluded.

Buyers looked to secure vessels that could offer prompt charter-free delivery at increasingly firm values and tankers were buoyant.

“We were able to benefit from this increased deal activity better than most not only on spot business but also using the opportunity to finalise some of the larger project transactions we had been working on during the year,” it said.

The broker noted the newbuilding market slowed in the second half as capital markets and private equity players took stock against an active approach to the market over the previous 12-month period.

The more traditional owner-base stepped back in, however, particularly in the crude sector.

source:www.tradewindsnews.com