March 2, 2023

Kingston Wharves Limited (KW)

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022: –

• For the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, Kingston Wharves’ revenue totaled $9.48 billion a 9% increase when compared to $8.67 billion for the corresponding period of the prior year, while revenue for the fourth quarter fell 3% to $2.47 billion (2021: $2.54 billion).
• The Terminal Operations division generated revenue of $7.58 billion (2021: $6.76 billion) for the twelve-month period, representing an increase of 12% over the corresponding period of the prior year.
• The company’s Logistics Services Division generated revenues of $2.98 billion, reflecting a 7% increase over the prior year figure of $2.79 billion.
• Cost of sales increased 17% to a total of $5.00 billion (2021: $4.28 billion).  As such, gross profit went up by 2% for the period to total $4.48 billion relative to $4.40 billion recorded a year ago. Gross profit within the fourth quarter contracted 16% to close at $1.09 billion compared to $1.30 billion booked for the quarter ended December 31, 2021.
• Other operating income declined year over year, to total $505.27 million (2021: $679.78 million). Administrative expenses went up by 42%, amounting to $1.72 billion relative to $1.21 billion for the same period last year.
• As such, operating profit closed the period at $3.27 billion, 16% less than the prior year’s total of $3.87 billion. Operating profit for the quarter declined by 40% to $816.57 million from $1.36 billion in 2021.
• Finance costs for the period declined 32%, to close at $101.89 million relative to $149.39 million booked for the corresponding period in 2021.
• Profit before taxation decreased 15% to $3.16 billion for the period in contrast to the $3.72 billion in 2021.
• Income tax expense for the period decreased 9% to $425.13 million compared to $468.50 million for the corresponding period in 2021. As a result, net profit for the period moved from $3.25 billion in 2021 to $2.74 billion in 2022, a 16% decline year over year. For the quarter net profit closed at $675.44 million (2021: $1.17 billion).
• Net profit attributable to shareholders for the twelve months decreased by approximately 16% to total $2.69 billion relative to $3.2 billion in 2021.
• Earnings per share for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022 amounted to $1.88 (2021: $2.23), while for the quarter, the EPS was $0.46 (2021: $0.81).  The total number of shares used in the calculations amounted to 1,430,199,578 units.  KW closed the trading period on March 2, 2023 at a price of $34.99 with a corresponding P/E of 18.58 times.

Balance Sheet Highlights:

• As at December 31, 2022, the company’s assets totaled $42.68 billion relative to $41.31 billion a year ago, an increase of 3%, which was driven mainly by an increase in ‘Property, Plant and equipment’ and ‘Short-term investments’ which increased 7% and 6% respectively to total $29.3 billion (2021: $27.51 billion) and $9.63 billion (2021: $9.08 billion) respectively.

Shareholders’ Equity amounted to $35.83 billion compared to equity of $34.97 billion reported as at December 31, 2021.  As such, KW has a book value per share of $25.05 (2021: $24.45).

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