Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s strong 2022 pushed it past the emissions targets laid out in its sustainability-linked loans, making it all a bit more expensive.
The Oslo-listed shipowner said on Friday that the weighted average CO2 intensity for its fleet of car carriers came in at 5.89, short of the 5.71 figure that would have given them a five basis point break on its $800m-worth of sustainability-linked bank loans.
Instead, the company will pay five basis points more.
“[Last year] was an exceptional year and we had full utilisation of the fleet,” said chief executive Lasse Kristoffersen.
“We used more fuel to adjust trade routes and we increased speed to compensate for the effects of the delays caused by port congestions and general supply-chain upsets.
“The downside was higher emissions.”
The intensity indicator is a measure of the CO2 emitted to transport one tonne of cargo for one nautical mile.
The $800m in loans were disclosed in August.
They included a 6.5-year, $200m agreement with a single bank and a $600m term loan from a 10-bank consortium, with the rate adjusted based on the company’s emissions.
The “exceptional year” described by Kristoffersen saw the company bring in $5bn of revenue, $3bn of which came from its shipping business, helping it to record a $749m profit, up 349% from the $177m reported in 2021.
The performance pushed it to issue a dividend worth a total of $360m.
On Friday, Kristoffersen said the company would continue its efforts to cut its CO2 intensity by 27.5% from 2019 levels by 2030.
He said the emissions targets were part of Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s “sharpened strategy”, which includes a push for a net zero service by 2027 and the use of biofuels at some point this year.
The company’s shares were trading at NOK 79.10 ($7.38) on Friday, up NOK 0.60 from the open and up NOK 1.60 from the previous close.
