Results at the smallest of the trio came in above expectations with attributable profit of TWD 660m ($21.8m) versus TWD 130m a year ago.
“High near sea shipping exposure continues to offer resilient returns,” saidJon Windham, Head of Infrastructure & Transport Sector Research at Barclays.
“Margin trend continues to be strong, with first quarter net margin printed at 4.4%, the eighth consecutive quarters of positive net margin.
“Wan Hai tends to generate more stable returns compared to its peers owing to its 87% intra-Asia exposure which has more stable volumes and freight rates.”
Yang Ming Marine’s results were in line with expectations with the shipowner reporting a narrowing off losses.
The company lost TWD 1.56bn in the first quarter of 2014 against TWD 2.7bn in the corresponding period last year.
“The earnings improvement was primarily driven by better cost control which enabled the company to breakeven on the gross margin level, which only happened twice in the past five quarters,” said Windham.
Taiwanese giant Evergreen Marine, in contrast, posted a loss that was much larger than had been expected as associate companies underperformed.
It reported an attributable net loss of TWD 1.7bn compared with a net loss of TWD 1.8bn in the first quarter of 2013.
Windham said investors should focus on Evergreen’s operating line, which is more telling of its underlying container shipping operations.
“Evergreen has significant exposure to non-container shipping assets to the value of TWD 24bn in aviation, logistics and ports,” he added.
These include a 19% stake in EVA Air and a 40% stake in Evergreen International Storage and Transport Corp.
