The United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) suffered an operating loss of US $299-million and a net loss of US $384-million in 2015 off of a revenue of US $3.32-billion.
The figures were revealed by Hapag-Lloyd as part of its obligatory disclosures as a public company before an upcoming Annual General Meeting, scheduled to be held in Hamburg at the end of August.
At the meeting, the German carrier will seek shareholders’ approval to amend its capital structure to complete a planned merger with UASC.
UASC has until now never disclosed its financial results as the shipping line is privately owned by six GCC states. The depth of its underperformance will likely cause some hesitancy among Hapag-Lloyd shareholders.
A negative operating margin of -9.0% makes UASC the worst performer among all main container carriers that have published financial results for 2015.
UASC’s poor financial performance has continued in 2016 with an operating loss of US $132-million and net loss of US $201-million on revenues of US $1.5-billion in the first six months of the year.