Ane Maersk Mc-Kinney Uggla has publicly backed progress to date in the high-profile transformation of AP Moller-Maersk from conglomerate to transport and logistics specialist.
Uggla, the daughter of legendary shipowner Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, told the group’s annual general meeting it was a “supertanker” and took a long time to turn around.
Her comments come just a few days after Maersk pivoted on the sale of its last energy business, Maersk Supply Service, and came amid questions from some investors about progress on the strategy.
While Uggla declined to set a date for when the overhaul will be finished, she told the meeting: “It’s been a tough year, but there have also been many good things in our transformation.”
Wrong direction?
According to Reuters, Claus Wiinblad, a senior vice president of pension fund ATP, raised questions about the progress being made.
“Sometimes it’s hard for us investors to assess whether the strategy is moving in the right direction or not,” said Wiinblad, whose company owned a 1.4% stake in the Danish giant at the close of 2018.
Maersk booked an underlying profit of $220m in 2018, but its cautious outlook for 2019 dominated headlines when the results came out in February.
The company paid a dividend of $479m for the year and has authorized a share buyback programme.
Today chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe said outside factors were to blame for last year’s result.
“We are seeing signs that the transformation has begun to work,” Snabe told the shareholders, according to Reuters.
“We’ve seen a very positive development in customer satisfaction,” he added.
Headline progress
In his letter in the annual report in February chief executive Soren Skou wrote under the headline accelerating our transformation.
“The objective of the transformation of AP Moller-Maersk is to set the company on a new profitable growth trajectory," he said.
“In the past two and a half years, we have come far in regaining our growth ambition, but we still need to improve profitability from the level seen in 2018.”
While Maersk Supply Service was last week taken off the market, transactions worth over $12bn have separated out the other energy businesses.
Maersk sold its product tanker business in late 2017, while its oil and gas division was sold to Total. Maersk Drilling will be listed independently this week.
