Fraport 1st half: revenue slightly down, profit positive

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Fraport Interim Report – First Half 2009: Revenue Slightly Down – Group Profit Positive
Crisis Effect on Traffic Figures Eases

The economic and financial crisis also left its mark on Fraport AG in the first six months of the current year. Group-wide passenger traffic in the first half of 2009 dropped 5.8 percent year-on-year, while the Frankfurt Airport (FRA) home base registered 8 percent fewer passengers. Adjusted for consolidation effects, Group revenue slipped 2.2 percent year-on-year to €941.2 million; EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) fell 10.5 percent compared to the same period last year to €255.4 million. Group profit continued to be positive, too, reaching €70.1 million. However, this was 31.1 percent less than in the January-to-June 2008 period, before the global regression set in.

Approximately 24.2 million passengers used FRA in the reporting period, down 2.1 million year-on-year. Falling by 10.9 percent in the first quarter, passenger demand slowed down its pace of decline to 5.6 percent in the second quarter. Nevertheless, net retail proceeds per passenger climbed during the same period by 4.3 percent to €2.90 from €2.78 last year. From January to June 2009, FRA's cargo throughput dropped by 21.4 percent to approximately 849,000 metric tons of airfreight and airmail. Aircraft movements shrank 5.7 percent to nearly 228,000 takeoffs and landings.

The Group's airports welcomed a total of 32.8 million passengers during the January-to-June 2009 period, only 5.8 percent less than in the same period last year. Peru's Lima Airport (LIM) even registered a 6.3 percent increase in passengers, while Turkey's Antalya Airport (AYT) recorded only 0.5 percent fewer passengers than in the first half of 2008.

The Fraport Group's gross sales revenues slipped by €99 million or 9.5 percent year-on-year to €945.5 million. Adjusted for the consolidation effects from the sale of Fraport's ICTS Europe security subsidiary and Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH in the first quarter of 2008 as well as for the positive effect from the higher proportionate consolidation of the Antalya investment since January 2009, Group revenue slipped only 2.2 percent or €21.3 million below the adjusted previous year's figure to €941.2 million.

Personnel expenses decreased from €495.1 million to €433.2 million in the reporting period – also mainly because of consolidation effects. Adjusted, personnel expenses grew by approximately €5 million or 1.1 percent because of additional financial burdens in the amount of €11.6 million resulting from a collective pay settlement. Cost-reducing effects resulted partly from adjusting personnel deployed to the declining traffic volume.

Unadjusted non-staff costs declined from €318 million to €300.3 million. Adjusted for special effects, material costs and other operating expenses fell only €3.4 million or 1.1 percent below the adjusted previous year's value to €299.5 million. Total operating expenses adjusted for special effects reached €732.1 million, only €1.3 million more than in the first six months of 2008.

Group EBITDA shrank by 10.5 percent or €30 million to €255.4 million. Group profit fell €31.7 million (31.1 percent) below the adjusted previous year's figure to €70.1 million. Basic earnings per share decreased by 31.8 percent to €0.75.

Following the ongoing curbing effect of the economic crisis on business development in the first half of the year, Fraport still expects the global downturn to affect the outlook for air traffic development for the entire year 2009. At its Frankfurt home base, the airport operator continues to anticipate passenger decline of between six and nine percent, especially since the effects of the flu pandemic can currently not be assessed. Thus, Group EBITDA at year end is expected to range between €500 to €530 million, compared to €590 million – on an adjusted basis – in the previous year. Group profit will also be below the 2008 level.

Fraport AG's executive board chairman Dr. Wilhelm Bender said: "Despite the crisis we continued to be in the black, which puts us in a good starting position for the time after the crisis." Furthermore, commencement of construction on the new runway set an important signal for the future viability and competitiveness of Frankfurt Airport. "Thus, we have created planning security for the airlines again. With the completion of the new runway in 2011, Frankfurt Airport and Fraport AG will benefit over-proportionately from the catch-up effects of air transportation that usually follow a crisis," Bender added.

Fraport press release 06.08.2009