Continued traffic growth and low interest rates upgrade annual profit estimate

Overall traffic on the Storebælt link increased by 4.2 per cent in the first six months of the year. Of this passenger car traffic accounted for the largest increase at 4.4 per cent while lorry traffic increased by 1.5 per cent. An average of 31,000 vehicles crossed the link every day.

“The high amount of leisure traffic in the spring and over the summer compared with the continuing low interest rate and inflation level mean that we have now upgraded our profit estimates before value adjustments and tax for the whole of 2015 by DKK 160 million,” says Sund & Bælt’s CEO Leo Larsen.

Revenue from road traffic across Storebælt increased by 4.1 per cent and totals DKK 1,395 million. There was, however, a fall in revenue from the railway, which is owing to the fact that the rail fee for Storebælt has been reduced by DKK 200 million per year as part of the financing of the Government’s growth package from the summer of 2014.

In total, this means a fall in operating profit to DKK 1,246 million against DKK 1,287 million for the same period last year.

The result before fair value adjustment and tax for the first six months of the year was a profit of DKK 1,007 million, which is a slight improvement of DKK 7 million compared to the same period in 2014.

The Group’s total interest expenses were DKK 436 million, which is DKK 18 million lower than the same period last year and is primarily due to lower inflation.

Value adjustments have positively affected the result for the period by DKK 562 million against an expense of DKK 1,088 million for the same period in 2014.

After the second quarter, A/S Storebælt’s interest-bearing net debt totals DKK 23.9 billion. The repayment period is calculated as 31 years from the time of the opening of the Storebælt link, which corresponds to 2029.

Read the full report here.

 Vehicle traffic across the bridge 1 January – 30 June