Panalpina To Appeal Recent European Commission Fine

Panalpina is to appeal against its recent fine of Sfr59 million (US$65m) for anti-trust behaviour from the European Commission.
CEO Monika Ribar (pictured) said: “We believe the amount is not justified, which is why we are going to appeal the decision to the European General Court.”   
Making provision for the fine is said to be behind Panalpina’s Q1 net loss of Sfr40.4 million, which compared badly with a profit of Sfr34.9 million made in the same period of last year.

Panalpina is to appeal against its recent fine of Sfr59 million (US$65m) for anti-trust behaviour from the European Commission.
CEO Monika Ribar (pictured) said: “We believe the amount is not justified, which is why we are going to appeal the decision to the European General Court.”   
Making provision for the fine is said to be behind Panalpina’s Q1 net loss of Sfr40.4 million, which compared badly with a profit of Sfr34.9 million made in the same period of last year.
That was not the only reason, however, as revenue declined by 6.8%, to Sfr1,539.8 million, out of which an operating loss (ebit) of Sfr34.9 million was extracted, compared with a profit of Sfr46.4 million in Q1 2011.
However, ignoring the fine and other non-recurring items, the forwarder’s underlying operating profit only fell from Sfr46.4 million to Sfr24.3 million.
 Ribar said: “While we did very well in ocean freight, gaining market share, we knew that the first quarter would be a difficult one for air freight, especially in comparison with last year’s exceptional first quarter.
“In anticipation of the difficult market environment and a challenging 2012, we reacted last year and introduced cost-containment measures. This led to a flat development of the operating expenses quarter-on-quarter.”
 Ocean freight container volumes were up 7%, which is claimed to be twice as fast as the estimated market growth of 3%.
Air freight volumes decreased by 8%, impacted by a 3% decline in the market.
Q1 2012 was also the last quarter that showed a year-on-year impact on volumes from the profitability restoration programme – the expiry of selected high-volume but low-margin customer contracts.