Zim Posts $397 Million Loss for 2011

Zim's young 100 vessel fleet has approximately 360,000 TEU carrying capacity

Zim Integrated Shipping Services (Zim), Israel's largest cargo shipping company, is the latest global shipper to post significant losses which it attributed to tough market conditions and rising competition.

Its fourth-quarter losses of $96 million followed Q3 losses of $66 million, taking its total losses for 2011 to $397 million.

The news will be of little comfort to its creditors, who also saw the Israeli firm miss a 31 December 2011 deadline to refinance its $2 billion of debt. 

Israel Corp, which is controlled by Ofer Holdings Group, gave Zim a $50 million cash injection in February 2012.

The cash was half of a $100 million "safety net" agreed in November 2011. 

Private Ofer Holdings Group companies Millennium Investments Ltd. and Elad will provide another $50 million.

The news comes after a change in fortunes for the global shipper who finished 2010 with Q4 profits of $151 million, and FY2010 profits of $54 million from revenues of $3,717 million.

The troubled shipper lost $322 million in 2008, and in 2009 had a $450 million cash injection to avert bankruptcy - the same year it lost $432 million off revenues of $2,449 million, although it did make a forth quarter profit of $81 million.

Plans dating back to 2008 to float Zim on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, resurrected again after the 2010 return to profit, remain on hold.

Parent company Israel Corp., which holds 99 percent of Zim's equity, still managed to turn in a profit of $151 million, down from $473 million in 2010.

2011 revenues for the corporation, Israel’s largest holding company which also has interests in specialty chemicals and energy, rose 27% from $16.7 billion to $21.2 billion.

The company will distribute a dividend of $120 million.