Fraport Interim Report – First Quarter 2012: Revenue & EBITDA Rise in the 1st 3 Months of 2012

In the first quarter of 2012, Fraport AG achieved revenue of €537.9 million – an increase of 5.8 percent year-on-year. The operating Group profit or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) grew disproportionately by 7.6 percent to €138.3 million. This positive performance can be attributed to growing passenger traffic at Fraport AG’s consolidated Group airports, which served a total of about 17.5 million passengers in the first quarter of 2012 – up 3.9 percent. 
 
The Group result, by contrast, declined by 36.4 percent year-on-year to €15.4 million in the first quarter of 2012, mainly reflecting ongoing investment activities at Frankfurt Airport (FRA). On the one hand, the higher capital requirements for FRA’s expansion program resulted in a declining financial result. On the other hand, depreciation and amortization increased, with FRA’s new runway being included for the first time in a first-quarter financial statement. Correspondingly, basic earnings per share dropped from €0.27 to €0.17 year-on-
year. Fraport is investing some €7 billion in FRA’s infrastructure from 2007 to 2015. As a result of these investments, free cash flow was still negative at minus €125 million – despite improving by about €35 million compared to last year.

“Our operating performance is excellent thanks to the commitment of all our employees. As expected, the Group result declined, reflecting our comprehensive investment activities. With these investments, we are building a solid foundation for the future of our company,” said Fraport AG’s executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte commenting on the first quarter 2012 results.

Because the global economy remains volatile, air cargo volume across Europe shrank in the months from January to March 2012. At FRA, air cargo tonnage declined by 11.7 percent, also partly due to the night flight curfew. Frankfurt Airport’s passenger figures, stimulated by intercontinental traffic, rose 3.5 percent to 12.2 million passengers. Although FRA achieved record passenger volumes in January and March, the first quarter of 2012 did not exceed the record of the previous leap year in 2008. This was due to 2,150 strike-related flight cancellations in February and March 2012.