Forth Ports harbours ambitions

Published on Friday 1 May 2009 21:54

FORTH Ports yesterday revealed that its trading was "in line with budget" in the first quarter of this year though behind the company's performance in the same period last year.

In a statement issued to coincide with its annual general meeting yesterday, the Edinburgh-based company claimed its ports business continued to "trade well in the face of difficult economic conditions".

Until recently the company has been relying on the property side of its activities – Forth is heavily involved in the development of Leith docks – to provide the impetus for the business.

However, the downturn in the economy resulted in property consultants DTZ slashing the market value of Forth's assets by 222 million to just 60m in March, warning that 80 per cent of its land currently had no development value.

Yesterday the company had to admit that even the ports business – which includes most of the docks around the Firth of Forth as well as Tilbury on the Thames – was also suffering in the recession.

The statement said that the company had plans for up to 50m of new projects but they were "unlikely" to be implemented this year.

Charles Hammond, Forth's group chief executive, said that the conversion of 60m of shareholders loan stock to equity in its company which controls the Ocean Terminal shopping centre showed that the business was now "more conservatively financed". He added that the deal and Forth's plans to "conserve cash" would allow the company to take advantage of a future economic recovery.