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Maersk reports Q1 profit, slightly increases 2015 outlook

Xinhua, May 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moeller-Maersk on Wednesday posted a 1.6 billion U.S. dollar profit for the first quarter of 2015, and slightly upgraded its outlook for the whole year.

"The group continued to deliver a strong performance in the first quarter of 2015, achieving a very satisfactory result of 1.6 billion dollars," Maersk CEO Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in a statement.

Net profit for the same quarter last year was 1.207 billion dollars, according to the group.

Maersk said the profit increase was positively impacted by an after-tax gain from the sale of it's shares in Danske Bank of 223 million dollars.

The group slightly upgraded its annual outlook saying it "expects an underlying result of around 4 billion dollars for 2015," against it's previously announced result of below 4 billion dollars.

However, the group's revenue was reported at 10.547 billion dollars, down 10 percent from 11.736 billion dollars for the same period last year, the group added. The reason for the decline was believed to be largely due to the lower oil price.

Profit before tax stood at 1.752 billion dollars, representing a 16 percent decline, year-on-year.

Maersk Line, the group's container-shipping business, continued it's strong financial performance with a profit of 714 million dollars in the quarter, compared to 454 million dollars profit for the same period last year.

Maersk Oil, the group's oil and gas business, reported only 208 million dollars profit in the first quarter, down from 346 million dollars year-on-year.

"All businesses affected by low oil prices launched cost initiatives to safeguard long-term profits and competitiveness," Andersen said.

The group's terminals and drilling businesses also reported Q1 profit of 190 million dollars and 168 million dollars respectively. Endit