Qatar Navigation (Milaha), a leading maritime and logistics conglomerate, said its net profit for the first nine months fell to QR363 million ($37.59 million) from QR759 million ($208.47 million) last year.

Annoucing the results for the nine months ended on September 30, 2017, Milaha said its operating revenues too registered a sharp decline hitting QR1.66 billion ($455.9 million) from last year's QR1.99 billion ($546.54 million).

The operating profit amounted to QR200 million ($54.93 million), compared to QR513 million ($140.9 million) for the same period last year, said the company in a statement.

Milaha’s earnings per share was QR3.19 ($0.88 cents) for the nine months of this year, compared to QR6.68 ($1.83) for the same period in 2016.

Milaha Maritime & Logistics’ net profit declined by QR13 million ($3.57 million) year-to-date (YTD) September relative to last year, said the statement.

However, the Qatari logistics group said its net profit increased significantly quarter-on-quarter, from QR5 million ($1.37 million) in the second quarter of this year, to QR70 million ($19.23 million) in the third quarter of this year, driven mainly by volume increases in container shipping and port services.

Milaha Gas & Petrochem’s net profit declined by QR138 million ($37.90 million), mainly due to vessel oversupply and depressed rates that have impacted most of the tanker and gas carrier sectors in which the company operates, in addition to lower profits from our joint venture operations.

Milaha Offshore’s net profit declined by QR126 million ($34.61 million) (including one-time impairments of QR57 million ($15.66 million)), driven mainly by continued global vessel oversupply and lower demand, which negatively impacted charter rates and utilisation across the entire sector.

Milaha Trading’s net profit declined by QR5 million ($1.37 million) due to lower sales volumes of marine fuels and lubricants.

Milaha Capital’s net profit declined by QR115 million ($31.59 million) due to lower held-for-trading investment returns and an available-for-sale investment impairment from the first quarter of 2017.

Commenting on the results, chairman Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al Thani, said: "The weakness in the shipping and offshore marine sectors continued to negatively impact our results, however, I’m pleased to say that net profit improved significantly quarter-on-quarter from Q2 and Q3."

“We believe we have good momentum going into Q4,” he added.

Abdulrahman Essa Al Mannai, president and CEO, Milaha, said: “We are naturally taking concrete steps to manage our costs, however, we also feel encouraged to see a number of new growth opportunities in the short and medium across our portfolio of services, which will allow us to strengthen our market position.”-TradeArabia News Service