Maersk Profits Jump in First Quarter After Sale of Danske Bank Shares

Maersk Group's Profit increased to $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2015, up from $1.2 billion in 2014.

Despite "low oil prices and low economic growth," A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S announced Wednesday that profit increased 30 percent to $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2015, up from $1.2 billion this time last year. 

The results largely reflect the one-time sale of the company's shares in Danske Bank for $223 million earlier this year, according to reports. 

The quarter saw revenues fall 10 percent to $10.5 billion from $11.7 billion in 2014, with the ongoing weak price of crude having impacted its businesses, said Maersk Group CEO Nils S. Andersen.

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

The company reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.72.

The parent company said that the quarter's earnings were driven by Maersk Line, Maersk Drilling and APM Shipping Services, while profit at Maersk Oil and APM Terminals suffered from lower oil prices and lower volumes in oil dependent markets.

In particular, low bunker prices helped propel profit at Maersk Line up to to $714 million from $454 million last year, said the company, even as revenues dropped to $6.3 billion from $6.5 billion. 

By contrast, revenues and profit at Maersk Oil dropped around 40 percent, with revenues coming in at $1.4 billion and profits coming in at $208 million. 

Despite the results, Maersk Oil's performance was better than expected, according to a Reuters report. 

The report also suggests that analysts were disappointed by Maersk Line's performance, noting that the company lost market share in container shipping in the first quarter.

"As a consequence of the price war on Far East-Europe during the low season, it seems Maersk Line has stepped out of the market to prevent margin deterioration and lost market share," said Nordea Markets. 

In an analyst conference call, Andersen reportedly replied that the company had "no intention of losing market share." 

"In a market that grew 1 to 2 percent, we declined by 1.6 percent," he said.

"That is very marginal; if we want to catch up, we will catch up, so I wouldn't worry."

Maersk Group also altered their 2015 guidance slightly to predict an underlying profit of roughly $4 billion. 

Last month announced that it was continuing to look into reducing bunker bills through the use of "big data," with Maersk Group currently collecting 30 terabytes of data per month from its fleet.