In the first three quarters of 2014, Fraport AG’s adjusted Group revenue increased by 2.3% to €1.79bn compared to the same period in 2013, but retail revenue contracted by 3.3%.

 

Recording €334.9m in the first nine months of 2014, revenue in the Retail & Real Estate business segment was down by 3.3% year-on-year. This can be attributed to lower revenue from land sales as well as from energy supply services and utilities (due to the mild winter weather).

 

“Revenue in the Retail sub-segment declined, largely reflecting a change in the passenger structure and a reduction in purchasing power related to the persistently high exchange rate of the euro against many Far Eastern currencies,” said FRA.

 

 

Correspondingly, the key performance indicator net retail revenue per passenger dipped from €3.44 to €3.27 (down 4.9%). Thanks to lower expenses related to land sales and energy supply services and utilities, segment EBITDA remained almost flat in the reporting period at €264.1m, down €0.4m or 0.2%.

 

Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) grew by 6.4% to €621.3m year-on-year, while the Group result rose by 1.7%to €219.6m.

 

The Fraport Group achieved positive financial performance thanks to traffic growth in the first three quarters of 2014. Frankfurt Airport (FRA), the Fraport Group’s home base, recorded a 3.2% rise in passenger figures, despite several strike days that led to almost 3,700 flight cancellations and affected over 430,000 passengers.

 

FRA posted new monthly passenger records every month from May to September 2014. A new historic daily record was achieved on the last Friday in September 2014, when Frankfurt Airport served some 214,000 passengers in a single day.

 

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Traffic figures continued to grow not only at FRA but also at airports in the Group’s international portfolio. Fraport AG has expanded its portfolio twice this year by acquiring US-based Airmall Group – which markets retail space at North American airports – and by winning the bid for a majority stake in Aerodrom Ljubljana, the operating company that runs Ljubljana Airport (LJU) in Slovenia.

 

 

Commenting on the positive result, Fraport AG’s executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte said: “Our latest financial figures show that we are on track to meet our full-year outlook for 2014. As our international portfolio is truly contributing to the company’s financial success, we are delighted that Fraport could gain two new international investments this year.”

 

Revenue in the External Activities & Services business segment fell by 9.3% in the first nine months of the year to €292.6m. Adjusted for the IFRIC 12 accounting standards (lower recognition of earnings-neutral capacitive capital expenditure in the Group’s Twin Star and Lima airport companies), segment revenue recorded an underlying increase of 5.3% – advancing from €270.7m to €285.1m year-on-year.

 

The revenue gain was mainly due to passenger growth at the Group’s international investment airports. Segment EBITDA rose by 10 percent to €124.3m, due to organic revenue growth and lower expenses.

 

A rise in depreciation and amortization – resulting, among other things, from the inauguration of new passenger terminals at the two Bulgarian airports in Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) in the previous business year – caused segment EBIT to rise by €4.4m (up 6.1%) to €76.9m year-on-year.