One-off gain keeps Hutchison Port Holdings Trust final dividend of HK18.7cts in line

The boost came from a divestment gain.

It has been noted that Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, despite full year revenue being c. 2.5% lower than a report's expectation at HK$12.6bn (~flat), gross profit was 1.9% higher than forecast at HK$8,040m (+2.9% y-o-y).

According to a research note from DBS Vickers Securities, further, including a one-off gain of HK$ 155m from the divestment of its stake in Zhuhai Jiuzhou International Containers, the net profit of HK$1,745m was above DBS Vickers Securities' expectations.

Core earnings was 6% above its expectation, too, according to the report.

Here's more from DBS Vickers Securities:

A final dividend of HK 18.7cts (ex on 11 Feb) has been declared, bringing total dividends for 2015 to HK 34.4cts, in line with our expectations, but notably this was boosted by the divestment gain.

Revenue was flat in-spite of overall throughput declining 1% y-o-y (4% growth for Yantian but 6% decline for HPHT’s HK terminals) as the Group enjoyed higher average tariff and along with cost improvements, managed to grow gross profit by c. 3% y-o-y.