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DFDS A/S reported a mixed financial performance for the second quarter of 2025. The company experienced slight revenue growth of 8.25%, driven primarily by the acquisition of BU Tests, yet faced a significant 28% decline in EBITDA compared to the previous year. The stock price saw a modest decline of 0.48% following the announcement. According to InvestingPro analysis, DFDS is currently trading below its Fair Value, presenting a potential opportunity for value investors. The stock has experienced significant pressure, down 44.12% over the past year. DFDS also provided revised guidance, with expectations of a 5% revenue growth and adjusted EBIT guidance now ranging from DKK 800 million to DKK 1 billion.
Key Takeaways
- Revenue growth was supported by strategic acquisitions.
- EBITDA decreased by 28% year-over-year.
- Net interest-bearing debt was reduced by €1.1 billion.
- The company revised its EBIT guidance downward.
- DFDS introduced biofuel and new pricing models to enhance operations.
Company Performance
DFDS A/S showed a mixed performance in Q2 2025, with revenues seeing a slight increase due to strategic acquisitions. However, the company faced challenges with a 28% decline in EBITDA, reflecting operational difficulties and competitive pressures. The reduction in net interest-bearing debt by €1.1 billion is a positive sign of improved financial health. InvestingPro data reveals the company maintains a FAIR Financial Health score of 2.06, with particularly strong metrics in relative value (3.31) and cash flow (2.3). The company’s market capitalization currently stands at $863.46 million, with a notably low Price/Book ratio of 0.41. Industry trends, such as minimal growth in European markets and challenges in the Turkish export market, have impacted DFDS’s performance.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: Slight increase, driven by acquisitions.
- EBITDA: Down 28% year-over-year.
- EBIT: €163 million.
- Adjusted Free Cash Flow: €500 million.
- Debt/EBITDA Ratio: 4.2%, expected to decrease by Q4.
Outlook & Guidance
DFDS has adjusted its EBIT guidance to a range of DKK 800 million to DKK 1 billion, down from previous expectations. The company maintains its revenue growth expectation of around 5% and has reduced its CapEx guidance from DKK 1.5 billion to DKK 1.3 billion. For investors seeking deeper insights, InvestingPro offers additional exclusive tips and comprehensive analysis, including detailed financial health metrics and growth projections. InvestingPro subscribers can access the full Pro Research Report, which provides in-depth analysis of DFDS’s market position and future prospects. The company remains committed to achieving DKK 1 billion in adjusted free cash flow and anticipates that its operations in Turkey/Europe South will break even by 2026.
Executive Commentary
CEO Thorben Karlsen emphasized the company’s focus on leveraging its network and strengths, stating, "We need to focus on our own network, on our own strength, our own customers." He acknowledged the competitive dynamics affecting volume, saying, "The competitive dynamics were such that meant some loss of volume." Karlsen reiterated DFDS’s commitment to sustainability, noting, "We continue to be committed to the green transition pathway."
Risks and Challenges
- Competitive pressures on key routes, such as Rotterdam-Felixstow.
- Oversupply in continental road warehousing impacting pricing.
- Foreign exchange dynamics affecting the Turkish export market.
- Potential volume loss due to price increases.
- Macroeconomic uncertainties in European markets.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about DFDS’s pricing strategy and its impact on volumes. The company expects limited volume loss from price increases, with a focus on transparency and segmentation. Questions also addressed the stabilization of the Jersey route operations and the performance of new Mediterranean routes, which are meeting expectations.
Full transcript - DFDS A/S (DFDS) Q2 2025:
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Good morning. The headline of our Q2 report is that the result was lowered by Mediterranean headwinds. On the one hand, the result for most of our network was broadly in line with
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Thorben Karlsen, CEO: I said before, the underlying strength of our network is intact. On the other hand, the adaptation of our Mediterranean ferry business and the turnaround of logistics at Turkiye and Europe South progressed in Q2, but with less speed than expected. As you know, this led us to update our earnings outlook with the range introduced with a lower midpoint than previously expected. This is of course not a satisfactory situation, but I do take comfort from the actions that as we speak are being rolled out to speed up the recovery, I also take comfort from the solid progress we made on our logistics boost projects. We’ll report more on progress and actions as we go through the slides.
Let’s start with an overview of our market environment and the Q2 results. If you turn to Page three, We just repeat our moving together towards 2030 strategy with the five pillars, the green transition and the commitment to reaching our goals there, plus the focus on reduction of leverage, reduction of debt, non core asset review and working capital initiatives that Karen will talk more about. On Page four, the geopolitical market and competitor environment. On The U. S.
Tariff talks, the disruptions are settling down some. The Ukraine war uncertainty unfortunately continues. Germany’s commitment to lifting infrastructure defense investments have not yet shown in the market, but will come. All in all, the near shoring outlook is positive. Companies do move production closer and manufacturing closer to their customer base in Europe, either Eastern Europe clusters, Turkey, North Africa.
The markets in Europe still experienced very little growth. The Turkish export see some challenges by the foreign exchange parity I. E. The Turkish lira is not weakened as much as the inflation would say, although clearly the Turkish government is moving direction. We’ve seen lately some oil price spread increases that will help us in the latter part of the year where it has been a negative impact in Q2.
On the competitive side, the capacity on the Istanbul 3 STE corridor, are adjusting to meet demand. We see some increased capacity on some of the North Sea South routes from flooding into impacting our flooding in Pfenexstow route. We continue to see oversupply of continent road warehousing capacity impacting of course pricing power. Turning to Page five and a walkthrough of the background for the adjusted outlook. Our Q2 earnings were lower by Mediterranean headwinds, which means the ferry division result is below expectations due to this.
The logistics division result, on the other hand is ahead of expectations, helped by good traction on the boost projects and by transaction gains. QP and Europe South, what we refer to as TESS is below expectations, we’ll come back to that, and a very strong first half cash flow driven by targeted initiatives. The focus areas progressed less than expected. The logistic boost projects showing strong progress, as I mentioned, come back to that. The Mediterranean ferry volumes were in line with expectations, little down versus last year.
The market is growing due to the lower ferry prices, but our pricing initiatives were not effective. On the test turnaround, the cost part rightsizing ExaPart is going as planned or better. Unfortunately, the volume development has disappointed and were weaker than expected. And also the ability to raise prices has been weaker than expected. Stable network and initiative launched to correct the lagging progress on the focus areas.
So on the Mediterranean, a new price model is launched and further capacity adjustments will come later in the quarter. We have turned our focus in tests on a profitable volume growth. And for the rest of the network, we continue to see a relatively stable outlook, stable volumes, stable earnings. And then we continue to have a very strong focus on our working capital and on our CapEx spending. With that, please turn to Page seven, where Karen will give you more details on the numbers.
Karen, CFO: Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone on the call. Turning published today. Overall, a slight growth in our revenue driven by the addition of BU tests compared to that same quarter last year. So overall, we see an uptick in revenue. If we take them sort of group by group, we also see a positive in the ferry passenger.
It’s up, and this includes the revenue includes onboard spend, which is a positive for us. Freight revenue on a like for like basis when we adjust for various routes and this, amongst others, means excluding the Ulster route, which we had included last year, freight is down. However, if we adjust for these things, then we stay on level more or less. Logistics organic revenue was down, but this is a deliberate choice. You can almost say it’s a result of a shutdown of some unprofitable activities, mainly in The Nordics and a bit in the content.
So this is why that is slightly down. And overall, you also see the net effect of the acquisitions, the addition of BU Test and the sale of also Barry. Turning to Page eight, income statement. I think we overall, it’s hits in our message from the day, right? And revenue up, however, and EBITDA down due to the lower quality of earnings, so 28% down EBITDA for the quarter compared to last year.
Depreciation is broadly in line. We had last year in that line as well a reversal of impairment on Dorsal route as the route had been sold by that time, at a price that justified the reversal of the impairment. So that was a one off of 33,000,000 that we show here again. This quarter, we have a one off of $51,000,000 which is a result of a sale and leaseback transaction of two suites warehouses with a net gain of $51,000,000 in the Logistics division. So comparing that, there’s a net effect of $18,000,000 here compared to same quarter last year.
EBIT at 163,000,000 as we discussed, and I’ll come back to that from the divisions in a minute. And then overall, we see an uptick in finance costs, which is driven by currency costs. Overall, our finance interest costs are down due to lower interest rates, and this is despite a higher debt in the compared to same quarter last year. But we have some well, last year, we had a gain. We have some losses on currency this quarter.
Moving to Slide nine, a quick overview of the EBIT of the quarter, also seen in context of the past four years, so obviously not a satisfactory result, as Thorben also said. And in the bottom right on this slide, we show you that this is mainly driven by our challenges in Ferry in the Mediterranean, as Torben also presented. And then we have also a lower result in logistics driven by our new logistic division in Turkey as well as some one off items. I’ll come back to now in the EBIT on the next slide, Slide 10, Ferry division. We’ve chosen to show our EBIT variation in this way this time.
You will see rest of the network, which is the vast majority of the network. So if you apart from our BU Med, is broadly in line with last year. Of course, are some variations, but if overall under some of the thing, we are broadly in line with last year’s performance. We then have the loss in The Mediterranean due to the lower pricing and also some additional costs that we have faced in The Mediterranean, but mainly the pricing. As we have also communicated, volumes are not that much down at all, but it is the pricing that hits us.
And then we have a quite significant net effect of one off items, which is a combination of some quite a lot of positive one offs in last year’s numbers and then negative numbers in this quarter’s numbers, which gives a net profit minus $116,000,000 Turning to Page 11, logistic EBIT. We have tried to project it the same way. Again, the sum of Nordic, Continent and UK and Ireland business units, if we exclude the impact of the Food and Mouth disease, which we have been included elsewhere, then that is broadly in line with our performance last year. So trying to show and demonstrate here that we are, for a vast majority of our business, in a good state. Obviously, and as communicated from the beginning of the acquisition of Turkey Europe South, the former Econ, we are seeing losses.
They are here slightly below our expectations, but not that far from what we were anticipating. And then a net effect of one off of positive 12,000,000 This includes the warehouse sale that I mentioned before of the 51,000,000 and then a number of redundancy costs steaming out of both EU test, but also when we have closed activities and traffics in the Nordic and the continent. So that leaves the €33,000,000 Last page on the financials, our Q2 cash flow and capital. We had despite our challenges, a relatively strong operating cash flow of 1,100,000,000 We stayed on our CapEx, meaning that our CapEx were around $300,000,000 And as you have also seen, we have slightly lowered our over €200,000,000 lowered our forecast of CapEx for the year. That leaves us with an adjusted free cash flow of €05,000,000,000 for this quarter and year to date 800,000,000 So that is supporting well our target that we also maintained in our outlook.
This has been achieved not only by the CapEx discipline I mentioned, but also by a range of working capital initiatives and the factoring program that we have previously communicated. We only added marginally about $150,000,000 of additional factoring in this quarter, but improved on our both on our payables and receivables to get to this result. As a consequence, our net interest bearing debt is lowered by €1,100,000,000 compared to in 2024. But with the reduction in the last twelve months EBITDA pro form a, including BU Test for the last twelve months, we are now up at 4.2%, where we at least know we will decrease by Q4. So with that, I will turn back to Thorben.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Thank you, Karen. Page 14, continue to reduce our emissions from our ferry operations 4.1%. And in addition, we have introduced biofuel on our Amsterdam, Newcastle and new route Villa Garcia, Rotterdam routes. The way the emission systems work, we can benefit from the bio fuel emissions also other places in the market. E trucks, another seven E trucks adding in Belgium and UK.
Safety, a very significant improvement in lost time to 5.2 from 7.2 with improvements both in the ferry and logistics side and with reducing fluctuations month by month following the significant initiatives we have in this area. Women in management positions up one percentage point. And on the Deg and Engine side, we have increased the female ratio from 4% to 10% over the last year. Moving to Page sixteen, three focus areas to resolve in 2025, logistics boost projects, adaptation of the Mediterranean ferry business and the turnaround of Turkey and Europe South. Starting on Page 17 with the logistics boost projects, We launched eight projects that we talked about to you in 2024.
We started the year with a double digit monthly loss from these projects. And by June, they collectively turned positive. Five of the eight are now above threshold level, which means they’re exceeding 3% EBIT and have left the boost program. Three units are still in, but with significant initiatives already happened, so that we expect also in a short time frame to see those projects leaving the Boost extra focus. A lot of initiatives have been carried through in terms of FTE reductions, traffic reductions, office close downs and office mergers to achieve these.
Moving to Page 18. We are, as the headline say, launching a new pricing model effective September 2025. The ferry capacity as you know as background was increased when three RowRow ferries was entered on the Eastern Boutoujest corridor by a competitor from mid September twenty four. We have reduced capacity on our corridor to compensate for this. We have further redelivery of RoRo ferries in Q3.
On the volume side, as you can see in the table, our volumes have stayed relatively stable some downturn of course. This is not because the competitor have not gained market share, but because the market has grown as ferric pricing have gone down. We have tried in first half to increase prices with less effectiveness than we had hoped. And this has led us to change our pricing model in this market for a more simple one, a more transparent one. And we will see a yield recovery from September 1 with the launch of this model.
Turning to Page 19, a quick recap of what Turkey and Europe South is, the former Ecol basically entering a high growth logistics market driven by Turkish role as Europe’s manufacturing hub, replicating the model we’ve seen successfully applied in the North Sea where we have both ferry routes and logistics and with the combined offerings from Turkey providing in our mind unbeatable combination. But on page 20, a little details on how we are then doing. Turkiye and Europe South turnaround slowed by weak volumes as you can see in the headline. We have carried through with the rightsizing of the operations, reduced fleet, reduced assets, increased subcontracting. We have on the organization side to the right reduced staff by almost 1,000 people.
We are closing down three country organizations during this quarter to focus on the business that mostly support the Europe Turkey business and therefore also our ferry line. Commercially, we have focused on a large portfolio review of customers, introduced price adjustments. The result of this had been that price adjustments have been hard to achieve to the extent we had hoped due to the competitive situation in the market and also the newly created dynamics from the ferry competition. There’s been so much focus by the organization on the rightsizing that maybe we’ve lost a little bit high on the commercial side that has been changed over the last couple of months. And we are now ready to fill the system with more volumes.
We have already seen some traction over the last couple of months on this. There is an operational challenge in intermodal ferry sorry rail operations in general are less reliable than other modes of transport due to the failure of traction for many different reasons. As we have reviewed our contract portfolio, we don’t have the right mix of risk sharing with our customers and suppliers when something goes wrong on the rail. And we are working also to improve this. It will take some time, but gradually we’ll see the improvement from this as well.
So a number of initiatives ongoing, some with even more success than we had planned for and others with some delay that we have addressed. Moving to page 22 and our revised outlook, which now of course reflects the Mediterranean headwinds we’ve talked about here. We still see a revenue growth of around 5%. The EBIT is now expressed as a range of DKK800 million to DKK1 billion rather than around DKK1 billion. We made the adjustments per division as you can see and we have reduced the CapEx guidance from around DKK1.5 billion to DKK1.3 billion as Karen alluded to.
So that we compensate basically for the missing EBITDA that we potentially face. In terms of free cash flow, this means that we maintain our guidance of DKK1 billion of adjusted free cash flow. Key priorities for 2025, organic growth focus, profitable organic growth focus obviously deliver on the turnaround focus areas. We still have three with the remaining booth projects, of course, cost focus throughout the organization, cash flow focus with targeted initiatives as Karen touched upon. We continue to be continued to be committed to the green transition pathway required to meet EU and IMO requirements.
And on the DEI side, full support from the Board to continue our initiatives in this area. And as you heard, good traction on several areas throughout the company. With this, we will hand over to the operator to manage the Q and A.
: Answer
Conference Operator, Moderator: And the first question comes from Dan Togo Jensen from DNB Carnegie. Carnegie. Maybe
Dan Togo Jensen, Analyst, DNB Carnegie: some more flavor on what you expect with the price increases here from September. What is the reaction from your clients when you have approached them with this? What is the response you get? And then how do you expect Cremaldi to react to this? Do you still depend, so to say, on them following suit?
Or and can you see that their prices have changed in any way? And maybe feeding that into your guidance, how much, so to say, of a volume drop from this higher price do you expect? And what is baked in, so to say, in the guidance range, I guess, reflected in the low end of the guidance? What is what kind of a volume drop is baked in? So that is the first question.
Thanks.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: That’s a long first question. Thank you for joining the call Dan. I think the lesson we have learned to address part of your question during this period is that we need to focus on our own network, on our own strength, our own customers rather than maybe so much on what the competition is doing and how they are responding. So that’s answering part of your question. We have our eyes fully on our own network, our own customers and what we need to do to continue to provide an excellent service to these customers while also allowing us to make money.
So that’s the discussions we’ve had with our customer base. We’ve explained that we tried some initiatives during the spring to increase prices, but due to the complexity of the very individual pricing agreements that were in place before, the effectiveness of increasing the headline price has not been sufficient. So now we are making a simplification in our pricing methodology that is transparent to the market, where basically if you are a small customer, you have one price. If you fall in a mid band, you have a slightly lower price. And if you’re a big customer, you have again a slightly lower price.
This will make our ability to understand the impact of what we are doing better. And of course, on average, this means that our price that our customers will experience price increases and to a very different impact for the customers, some relatively little impact, for others larger impact. So when we had the discussions with the customers about this, Obviously, it has not been something that they have been looking for. But in general, there is an understanding for this. And we expect relatively limited volume loss, but some volume loss.
And in our Q3 planning, we have the ability to redeliver two ferries from the Turkish network, so that we can still match capacity with demand. And it is much less expensive for us if we have a little bit less volume as long as we can match capacity than to endure a too low price. So the variability from some loss of volumes and if our expectations are a little bit off will not impact the guidance that we have come up with, if that answers the other part of your question maybe.
Dan Togo Jensen, Analyst, DNB Carnegie: No doubt. It seems from the outside at least. Normally, you would attach some kind of risk of lost volume with a significant or sizable increase in price, especially if you know the competitors’ still sales with relatively low utilization.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: And that’s what we have done. And that’s why we are redelivering two ferries.
Dan Togo Jensen, Analyst, DNB Carnegie: Okay. And then a follow-up on that because this feeds into the issues you have in e col that seems to suffer a bit from the relatively high price they have to pay the ferries. If prices are increased further, how does that fit into your breakeven ambition in Ecol in 2025 at some point? Is that at all achievable?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Ecol, of course, is negatively impacted from this price increase as well, at least in the short run. I think in the longer run, the market in general, including our own logistics operation will benefit from a more transparent pricing system from GFTS. Of course, there’s still a competition and our logistics is not planning on using the competition. So there may of course be some challenges there. But again, we have to rely on our own network, own services and our own actions to fix the problems we have in the Mediterranean.
Dan Togo Jensen, Analyst, DNB Carnegie: And just last one here. So the guidance range, does that bake in that E. Reaches breakeven in the course of this year? Or first, let’s say, being achieved in first half twenty twenty six, if possible?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: I believe we may even have written that we will not reach breakeven maybe today. It may be delayed. So what stands is what we’ve said before that in 2026 Ecol should no longer overall lose money. So you can say the breakeven point is delayed. And for 2026, the ambition is still to not lose money.
Dan Togo Jensen, Analyst, DNB Carnegie: Thank you, Alstapien.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: You’re welcome.
Conference Operator, Moderator: Then the next question comes from Lars Heindorff from Nordea. Please go ahead.
: Yes, morning. Thank you for taking my questions. If I can start on ECOD, quite a bit of sequential drop in the revenue from the first quarter into the second quarter. And Torben, you mentioned the maybe the lack of commercial focus during the integration phase. So the question is what kind of seasonality should we expect?
Is this sort of the run rate in terms of revenue going into the third and the fourth quarter? And then in terms of the restructuring and the aim of reaching a full year 26 positive EBIT, what is the target for own production in ECOD and also Feet, if any further FTE reductions?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: We have reduced FTEs by around 1,000 and there are still some different smaller deals where we outsource the running of the trucks ongoing, I believe. But more or less, we have achieved most of the adjustments in terms of own traction versus third party traction. That’s of course provided that we can reverse the trend of loss of volumes. And we do see that trend reversing as we speak. There is some seasonality.
It’s not huge. And yes, part of it was this loss of some focus on especially spot volumes that have hurt us. A different part was that we misread maybe the market a little bit in terms of our ability to get loss making contracts profitable through price increases. The competitive dynamics were such that meant some loss of volume. We believe that with the renewed transparency on the ferry pricing and maybe with less swings, there will also be a benefit not immediately, but over time for tests in terms of being able to be competitive.
And then maybe again to your actions you’re talking about, we’ve also said we are closing three countries. That is taking a little time, but they should be closed during this quarter to further reduce complexity.
: And so just to be clear about these things, so how much because it’s a little bit unclear about the impact on EBITDA, how much is one offs and how much exactly is ECOL? You do not disclose the ECOL EBITDA. Do you expect any other further special items on EBITDA level or restructuring cost into the second half?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: You will some one offs still July, August. But in general, we’ve taken a lot of the one offs. And the EBIT we show for test is cleaned for one offs.
: Okay. So just to get this right, so the minus EUR 68,000,000 contribution on EBIT for second quarter from TESS, Is that an adjusted number for one off items?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Correct.
: So what would it have been if you had not accounted for these redundancy costs and so forth?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: We are not disclosing that. But it’s not a dramatically different number that you would have seen.
: Okay. On are there any other business units in logistics besides ZEISS, which is losing money on EBIT level?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: No. The three other business units let me just check that.
Karen, CFO: Yes,
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: they are all making money, sorry.
: And is that adjusted or reported?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: This is reported.
: Okay. So without taking into account that now you’re closing some stuff in Belgium that you talked about and you have not adjusted for the cost related to those closures and so forth?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: No, not in the reported. But I don’t think you don’t see the reported, of course.
: No, no. No, I’m just trying to get a bigger picture, I mean, because it’s a little bit you talk about adjusted numbers in the text in the report, but it’s a little bit difficult to see exactly what you adjusted.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: But what you can say is that the Nordic and The UK continent have relatively strong results in Q2, Continent where we had the most boost and where we’ve seen the traction over the quarter really coming towards the end of the quarter, that’s where you have the lowest result, but where we continue in July to see the progress coming through.
: Okay. And then last one on the free cash flow guidance. You are keeping your free cash flow guidance. You are lowering your CapEx by EUR 200,000,000, and you are lowering your EBIT by 100,000,000, which means that there’s a gap. What is the reason?
And can you please explain that gap?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: I think you’re reading too much into your calculations there. We are basically achieving the 1,000,000,000 and that’s coming through CapEx discipline and cash flow initiatives. And then we are losing EBITDA. And I think we’re losing more EBITDA than EBIT by the way when you calculate.
: Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: You’re welcome.
Conference Operator, Moderator: Then the next question comes from Ulrich Bauch from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Ulrich Bauch, Analyst, Danske Bank: Yes. Hello, Thorben and Karen. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on the price increases. So firstly, when did you first realize that the effectiveness wasn’t as strong as you had expected?
And then secondly, can you at all share what the average impact on revenue per unit will be in percentage terms? And thirdly, also in this relation, the timing of the redelivery of ferries, is that also then from the September 1? And is there a potential that you will need to remove further capacity if you lose more volumes? That’s the first one. Thank you.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: As always, Ulrik, thank you for these very specific questions. I think I will get in trouble with competition authorities if I gave you the responses to this. But I can in general say that we, of course, found out as the quarter reporting came in month by month that the impact was not as expected. And we then started working with the first internally to develop a stronger model and then with the market to discuss this over the summer and explained that September 1, we would come with this new model. Initially, we probably had an idea that we could wait a little bit longer with the next step, but decided we had to speed this up.
And that’s, of course, also back to the first question, a reason that some customers feel a little that it’s a tough action that we come so early with changes again, but we saw no other way. In terms of redelivery of ferries, that’s around mid October.
Ulrich Bauch, Analyst, Danske Bank: Okay. Thank you. Then in terms of your passenger business, obviously, you’ve sold Oslo Copenhagen route, and you’ve gained the Jersey route. So just in like for like comparison, Q3 this year versus Q3 last year, can you provide any guidance of whether you are earnings power or volumes will be slightly lower or slightly higher versus the route split you had last year?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: So I’m not sure. Maybe I just missed it. You don’t want to know about Oslo Copenhagen, right? You want to know about our passenger business or
Ulrich Bauch, Analyst, Danske Bank: Yes, of course. So just looking at Q3 last year, you obviously had Oslo Copenhagen in those numbers. So the impact from those leaving the numbers in Q3 this year and then the Jersey coming in, so the net impact from this?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Yes. But we have yes, and we have also, of course, lost the Tarifa route, which was a very strong passenger route. So net Jersey, Tarifa and Oslo is a negative on the passenger. Then we have strong passenger performance in Strait Of Gibraltar, the existing route and also on the channel excluding Jersey. So let’s see.
But of course, it’s seasonality wise, we are hard hit by the loss of or that we don’t have the Oslo route in this quarter and the Tarifa route.
Ulrich Bauch, Analyst, Danske Bank: Understood. And then final question from me. You state that you’re experiencing increased competition from P and O on The Netherlands UK corridor. I have also noted that the CLDN has launched a new route between Belgium and The UK with the two new big RoRo vessels. So how is that affecting you?
Is it also affecting prices? And what how important is that corridor for you? Yes. The
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: impact from the increased competition is primarily hitting our Rotterdam Felixstow route. And there we’ve seen lower volumes, modest pricing impact, but lower volumes and we are trying to deal with that. Of course, it’s a smaller route in the larger system, but we just wanted to mention that something is happening there.
Ulrich Bauch, Analyst, Danske Bank: Okay. Thank you.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: You’re welcome.
Conference Operator, Moderator: And we do have one follow-up question from Lars Heindorff from Nordea. Please go ahead.
: Yeah. Hi, again. Thank you. Also on on the Jersey, I can see on some website that you have decided to pause a high speed service from Jersey during the winter. Is that something which were originally planned?
Or is this something new? And how will that affect in terms of the capacity that you have deployed there and also the development for the passengers during the winter period?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: There is a of course, a learning period for us as we have started this Jersey business, very close dialogue between us and the Jersey authorities as we learn things, as they learn things. And of course, for everybody it’s also a new experience that you have a separate operator to Guernsey. And the outcome of such discussions with the authorities have led us to agree that we can hold this service during the winter period. This positively impact our cost and results on the service. And it has been deemed that, that’s an acceptable action for the passengers.
: And the Jersey activities, if you look at those in total, are they contributing positively to EBIT? And if you I mean, if you can indicate by how much?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: They will there’s been start up costs. The primary, there will be a positive impact in Q3 from Jersey, yes.
: Size wise, anything material?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Let’s come back to that in Q3.
: Okay. And then the last one. If I recall correctly, you may correct me, but I think you started up a new route also in the Met versus Egypt, if I recall correctly. Is that correct?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: That’s correct. We’ve started two routes this year, one to Egypt and one from Rotterdam to Spain. They are both tracking as expected. And yes, so that’s going Are
: they contributing positively on EBIT line?
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: The Villa Garcia is very new. The Spain route is very new. The Egypt route is having a positive contribution.
: Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: You’re welcome.
Conference Operator, Moderator: So it looks like there are no further questions at this time. So I would like to turn the conference back over to Thorben Karlsen for any closing remarks.
Thorben Karlsen, CEO: Thank you very much. Thank you for the many many good questions. Let me wrap up the call. We are through most of our passenger high season have so far performed as expected. As mentioned earlier, the outlook for most of the freight work network is also stable.
We have already completed a large part of the preparation and some of the also some of the execution of the actions we are taking up taking to speed up the recovery of our Mediterranean ferry and logistics activities. Of course, the top priority for the remaining month of 2025 is to see those improvements coming through. Thank you very much for joining the call and for your questions. Look forward to speaking to you again soon. Have a good day.
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