Irish Ferries operator Irish Continental Group (ICG) has released its results for the year that ended on December 31, 2020, revealing that its revenue decreased by 22.5% year-on-year last year to €277.1 million.
The company's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 51.5% to €42.1 million, which it said was principally due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions on its passenger business.
ICG's net debt amounted to €88.5 million at the end of last year after total capital expenditure of €30.1 million.
The company's passenger traffic decreased by 66.3% to 519,000 passengers last year, while its car traffic decreased by 65.8% to 137,100 cars, its roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) freight units increased by 7.1% to 335,500, the volume of containers that it shipped decreased by 7.9% and its port lifts decreased by 8.9%.
The company experienced a non-trading cost of €11.2 million last year.
Additionally, the company noted that last year it was successful in the public tender to operate a container depot at the new Dublin Inland Port, for which it has signed an agreement to enter into a 20-year lease on completion of certain civil works by the landlord. The facility is expected to become operational during 2021.
ICG also said that it had a strong financial position with available liquidity comprising cash and committed bank facilities of €240.8 million as of December 31, 2020.
ICG Chairman Statement
ICG chairman John B. McGuckian stated, "2020 was an exceptionally challenging year for the group, with the restrictions placed on travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While these restrictions brought large-scale disruption and reductions in our passenger business, the other parts of our business proved resilient throughout the entire year. Our RoRo Freight operations grew in 2020 despite the operational and market difficulties presented by the pandemic. The container and terminal division largely maintained its profitability while it optimised capacity levels to meet market demands. The group maintained services on all its shipping routes to the United Kingdom and continental Europe, and operations at its container terminals. Both were critical to maintaining Ireland's supply chains during this challenging year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our colleagues who made the retention of these critical services possible in these difficult times, but in particular our colleagues on our front line in the ports, on our ships and in our terminals. During this most difficult year, their dedication to their roles kept our ships sailing, our terminals operating and crucially, our supply lines open."
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