Hapag-Lloyd shareholders have awarded themselves a bumper dividend payment — despite calls for more of profits to be reinvested in greener ships.
The German container carrier will divide a dividend of €63 per share, which amounts to a whopping payout of €11.1bn ($11.8bn).
The decision came after Berlin-based environmental group NABU said that figure amounted 65% of net profits and demanded “rethink” of the liner operator’s sustainability strategy.
The lobby group criticised Hapag-Lloyd for its reliance on “fossil energy such as LNG” at a time when it said that other major container shipping are increasingly moving towards e-fuels.
“Especially now that profits have been increased once again, more should be invested in the fleet,” said NABU managing director Markus Dufner.
He added that the investment in the fleet of only €600m to €700m was far too little given the astronomical profit made in the 2022 financial year.
“Unfortunately, Hapag-Lloyd's climate commitment is not credible,” he said.
Brushed aside
The criticism appears to have been swatted aside by the board of the German liner giant, which made a group profit of $18bn in 2022.
“I am very delighted that Hapag-Lloyd is distributing a dividend commensurate with the result so that shareholders can participate in this very positive business performance,” said chairman of the supervisory board Michael Behrendt.
The primary beneficiaries of Hapag-Lloyd's dividend payout will be the three largest shareholders that own nearly three-quarters of the company.
Chile’s Compania Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV), Germany’s Kuhne Maritime and the City of Hamburg control a combined 73.6% stake in the world’s fifth-largest liner operator through to the end of 2026.
However, the era of massive dividend pay out is not expected to last with earnings expected to gradually normalise.
Hapag-Lloyd is projecting that ebitda will fall to between $4.3bn and $6.5bn this year — way down on the $20.5bn earned in 2022
“We look back on an exceptionally strong 2022,” said chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen.
“What’s more, we have got the current financial year off to a good start,” he said.
“However, the cooling of the economy will lead to a significant decline in earnings, which is why we will focus on keeping a firm eye on our costs and continuing to act flexibly in the market.”
