Hello, everyone, and welcome to Qatar Navigation Conference Call. Please note that this call is being recorded, and I'd like to hand the call over to Bobby Sarkar. Please go ahead.
Okay. Hi. Thank you, Ali. Hi, everyone. This is Bobby Sarkar, Head of Research at QNB Financial Services. I wanted to welcome everyone to Milaha's First Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. On this call from Milaha Management, we have Akram Iswaisi, who is the EVP in Finance and Investments, and Sami Shtayyeh, who is the VP in Financial Planning and Analysis. We will conduct this conference with management first, going over the company's results presentation, followed by Q&A. I would now like to turn the call over to Akram. Akram, please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Bobby. Thank you, everyone, for joining Milaha's Q1 2025 Earnings Call and your interest in the company. Similar to prior calls, I will start by going over our consolidated financial results and then moving on to our various individual business segments before turning it over to Sami to go over our outlook for the rest of the year. As usual, we will end the call with Q&A. The key highlights of our financial results: Milaha's operating revenues came in at QAR 759 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared with QAR 747 million for the same period last year for an increase of 2%. Operating profit came in at QAR 212 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared with QAR 208 million for the same period last year for an increase of 2%.
Net profit for Q1 2025 was QAR 374 million, compared with QAR 365 million for the same period in 2024 for an increase of 3%. Lastly, our earnings per share was QAR 0.33 for the three months ended March 31st, 2025, compared with QAR 0.32 for the same period last year. Now, moving on to our business segments, starting with maritime and logistics, operating revenues for maritime and logistics increased by QAR 56 million, going from QAR 165 million in 2024 to QAR 221 million in 2025, driven by our container shipping and logistics units. In container shipping, our freight business, our volumes out of China services, our China service that began in the second half of 2024 provided uplift and growth by around QAR 41 million year-over-year comparison. In our logistics unit, higher freight forwarding volumes, in particular project cargo and higher warehouse utilization versus 2024, drove a QAR 9 million increase in revenue.
Operating expenses increased by QAR 29 million, with QAR 23 million of that increase being variable in nature and tied to revenue growth, and QAR 10 million of the increase coming from depreciation amortization in our container shipping unit due to right-of-use accounting for two chartered vessels that joined our fleet in Q4 of 2024. Non-operating income increased by QAR 3 million, with better performance coming from our QTerminals joint arrangement, more than offsetting lower gains on the sale of assets that were recorded in 2024. That brings us to an overall bottom line increase of QAR 30 million versus last year. Offshore results continue to trend upward, with operating revenue up QAR 28 million, or 8% versus last year. In addition, the addition of two vessels in mid-2024 and increased project work drove a substantial portion of that growth.
Overall, expenses increased by QAR 21 million, with QAR 17 million of that increase coming from higher third-party chartered vessels and QAR 6 million from higher technical expenses related to the addition of vessels in that fleet. The net income result for offshore was a year-over-year growth of QAR 8 million, or 12%. In Gas & Petrochem , there were a couple of one-off items that essentially knocked each other out, with the balance being a QAR 1 million uptick in net profit. In short, higher depreciation expense related to the change in useful life for our two wholly owned energy vessels that occurred in Q4 of 2024 was offset by increased results from associates and joint arrangements. Net profit for the segment came in at QAR 187 million this year versus QAR 186 million in 2024. Our trading segment recorded a slight increase in revenue, going from QAR 47 million to QAR 48 million in 2025.
Increased sales of bunker and marine-related items offset lower heavy equipment sales. Cost of goods sold similarly increased, with the end result being a bottom line loss of QAR 5 million, or 7%, obviously lower than last year. Lastly, moving on to capital, revenue slid by 22%, or QAR 37 million, with a QAR 12 million drop coming from lower Qatar Quarries sale and a QAR 24 million drop coming from our investment unit. QAR 34 million of the investment drop had to do with lower dividend income from our local Qatari equities position. Some of you may know that in 2024, 2024 was the first year some Qatari companies started issuing semi-annual dividend distribution. This happened later in 2024. In Q1 2024, companies paid the full year dividend, but Q1 2025 only paid the semi-annual dividend, and that obviously had an impact on our numbers.
On the cost side, total expenses came down by QAR 50 million, with QAR 9 million related to reduced Qatar Quarries ' cost of goods sold, and QAR 6 million was related to the successful recovery of an all-accounts receivable amount that was previously provisioned for. All in all, capital recorded a net profit decrease of QAR 29 million compared to the same period last year. That wraps up the segments. I will turn it over to Sami to discuss the outlook for the rest of the year. Sami.
Thank you, Akram. Starting with maritime and logistics. On the container shipping side, there's an industry-wide uncertainty over shipping rates given the political and economic trade and tariff issues. We'll have to see how that plays out. In logistics, the environment remains very competitive and challenging, but we're optimistic that new product and service offerings, such as pharma warehousing and turnaround efforts, will improve results. In offshore, on the support vessels and services side, we expect to see continued growth, particularly longer term, with all the expansion work in Qatar's oil and gas industry. For the harbor and industrial logistics operations, we expect stable revenue given the long-term nature of most contracts. In Gas & Petrochem , overall, we expect limited volatility due to the long-term nature of contracts we have in most business units. Our VLGC joint venture is the exception.
Our charter rates are currently stable. However, the longer-term outlook is uncertain. In trading, we will be focused on optimizing the segment and continuing our focus on profitable growth and margin improvement. Lastly, capital, where we will continue to focus on yield enhancement. With that, operator will now open the call for questions.
We are now opening the floor for question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. That's star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Rob Skepper of Ashmore. Your line is now open.
Yeah. Hi, everyone. Thanks. Thanks for your time this afternoon. Much appreciated. Yeah, a couple of questions from me. Just on maritime and logistics, yeah, so first quarter was a good quarter, and particularly your container business. Obviously, you've highlighted the overall kind of uncertainty in that industry right now. Just in terms of the month of April, are you already experiencing significant disruption there in terms of canceled routes and less utilization? Just so we can be a little bit prepared for second quarter. My second question is just on offshore and marine. Yeah, on the vessel chartering side, you've seen the benefits of the larger fleets. Are there new vessels being deployed throughout the year in the OSV space? Should we kind of expect the offshore marine segment to be growing sequentially throughout the year, or how should we think about it?
Thanks very much.
Okay. Thank you very much for that question. Started off with container shipping. To be honest with you, we haven't seen any major changes. We haven't seen the impact of, let's say, the change in global trade routes or reconfiguration of the global supply chain yet. It's too soon to tell. Clearly, there will be some changes, and we will have to deal with them. At the end of the day, nothing, to be honest with you, so far, we haven't seen anything. I mean, we have different scenarios we're looking at and seeing how we are ready to react to the upcoming changes. So far, we haven't seen anything. As it relates to offshore, our strategy is to deploy a mix of owned and chartered vessels when possible. At times, we will charter vessels to activate contracts that we have won.
It is almost like a bridge asset, if you will. We try to bridge the contract by chartering vessels to serve our clients until we are able to get delivery on the new vessels. However, as I have mentioned in previous calls, we do have a very large CapEx program, and we have a good order book of vessels, and they will continue to be delivered over the next two to three years. There will be some deliveries this year, but they will continue on and be spread over the next two to three years. I cannot give you specific dates just simply because there are a number of variables that come into play here, but there is a CapEx program and a mix, again, of new orders, plus we are looking at secondhand as well.
As I mentioned in previous calls, offshore is on a growth trajectory given what's happening in Qatar and the expansion on the energy side. We are very well positioned to capitalize on that growth and continue to serve the country as well as our major clients who depend on us.
Got it. Great. Thanks. Just jumping back on the container side. Yeah, I mean, good that you haven't seen too much disruption yet. Just in terms of the nature of the Chinese routes that you added in the second half of next year, is that China-Qatar, or is there any other routes there?
I mean, it's mostly tied to Southeast Asia and Asia and the region. It doesn't have anything to do with, it's not tied to Europe and the U.S. Expectation will be some reconfiguration of the trade routes and potentially some change of volumes on different routes. It's difficult to speculate right now on how this is going to play out.
Yeah, I agree. Just wanted to sort of thoughts. Brilliant. Okay. Thanks very much.
It's just too much again. You see it on the capital market side, it's difficult to speculate on how the market will perform. I think we're seeing the same thing here on shipping. So far, we haven't seen any volatility yet. We've got plans to see how it impacts us, whether positively or negatively. We're talking again to our customers, and we're talking to the other mainliners because obviously, we're part of that ecosystem, and everybody's doing the same thing. It's too soon right now. In April, we haven't seen really that much of an impact. I think in the next two to three months, we should begin to see some impact from that, whether positive or negative. We have our own views, which I can't share at this moment.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. That's star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Nikhil Puthen of CBSS. Your line is now.
Hello, gentlemen. Okay. Can you hear me? Hello.
Hello.
Yeah. Okay. This is actually I think so many of the questions have been answered in terms of offshore as well as on your maritime logistics. In the last quarter, you did mention that there will be some pressure on rates. In all probability, we could be seeing on a QoQ slight reduction in your container shipping. We did see a flat growth. It could be a good question.
I can't hear you. Can you speak up? I'm sorry, but it's not. Can you speak up? I can't hear you. I can't hear you.
Yeah. This is regarding your container shipping, sir. We wanted to know, I mean, you did mention about rate being pressured during this first quarter. We see a pleasantly surprised that QoQ, there has been a flat growth. That is a result of higher capitalization of your vessels. I mean, can we say that?
I'm sure I can't understand the question, but let me, I mean, in terms of we have, if you look at the China business, that's new business that we started the second half of last year, which was not in place in Q1 of last year. Obviously, you see the growth now in Q1. Rates in container shipping are volatile, right? Sometimes they're event-driven, and they can quickly impact rates. In terms of our volume, our volume, we exit certain routes that are unprofitable, and we're growing new routes. The focus right now is profitably growing our volume growth. Right now, again, if you look at what's happening, we started a new China route, and that's good business. We have long-term plans for that.
If you look at our business today, you got volume, and you got rates, which impact sort of our top line.
Okay. Okay. Again, on the offshore business, I mean, you did mention about oil and gas activities, increased activities being seen. In fact, last quarter also, you mentioned a similar kind of outlook. Actually, in the first quarter, we are not seeing actually that kind of trend in your revenue side on a quarter-to-quarter basis. I mean, what could be the reason? I mean, we were expecting some improvement. Are you going to be seeing the improvement going forward in the next quarter? Yeah.
I mean, the growth is not going to be immediate. You cannot turn on the switch tomorrow morning and start generating revenue. There's usually a lag, right? You bid on work, you go acquire the vessel, you win the work. I mean, there's two ways, right? You can speculate, go buy the vessels, and then deploy them once you win the contracts, or you can win the contracts and then go ahead and acquire the vessels. Largely, we've got a mix of those two strategies with a big emphasis on contract-backed CapEx acquisitions to a large extent to try to de-risk our future cash flow. Again, that's the reason. I mean, it's not going to be quarter-to-quarter growth. It takes time to build that growth. As I mentioned, we have a large CapEx program.
The pipeline for growth in Qatar is substantial, but there's usually a lag between, again, I said there's growth. It's going to continue to build up, but it takes time to acquire vessels, to build vessels. That is primarily the reason. It is not a switch that you could flip on tomorrow and start generating that revenue.
You continue to maintain the CapEx?
Let me say comment there. I mean, this is the yes. I mean, we announced that, and it's committed. There is substantial commitment, and that will continue. That is the nature of the business in CapEx-heavy industries where, again, there is usually a lead time where you have to build whatever infrastructure asset, and it takes time to be deployed. You build it, you mobilize it, you contract it, you build it, you mobilize it on existing contracts. Unfortunately, we have a fantastic pipeline of work. That level of CapEx commitment is backed or is based on a mix of committed contracts as well as our view of projections of future contracts.
Okay. In large speed. Okay. I mean, one last one. I mean, in terms of your provisions.
Sorry, I didn't hear that.
Yeah. Regarding your, again, mainlines. Yeah. I was looking at your provisions, sir, in your receivables. I mean, we do see provisions again coming into picture. I mean, I wanted to understand that. I mean, I know that it's not a very big amount, QAR 11 million, but you can definitely say it is a little bit on the higher side as compared to your normal run rate, say, for last year. Can you give us some color on this or what you're commenting on?
There's no comment. These are we're just following the accounting standards. I mean, there's nothing to comment on. This is I've explained that in many calls before. We just follow IFRS, and there's a model that is being used to provision for receivables. I mean, we're in an industry where at times there will be a lag in collection of receivables based on the nature of the clients we deal with or depending on whether there's a dispute over an invoice or not. This is normal. I mean, this is again, there's nothing really to comment on there except for the fact that we follow accounting standards to the letter. This is also something that gets audited extensively. You provision based on an ECL model, and when you collect, you just simply recover them.
At times, we may have disputes regarding some work we've done. There is delay in receivable. It could be potential litigation, but this is just normal course of business. In the grand scheme of things, it is immaterial, to be honest with you.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thanks a lot. My thanks.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Mohit of Lesha Bank. Your line is now up.
Thanks for the presentation. I'm Mohit from Lesha Bank. I think last quarter, we had a call and mentioned that the case.
Mohit, can you speak up? We can't hear you, to be honest with you.
Is it possible?
Can you speak up? We can't hear you.
Is it possible now?
Can you speak up? We can't hear anything. A little louder , please.
Just a second.
Yeah. Is it any better? Hello? Am I audible?
Yes, Mohit. Go ahead, please.
Yes. Regarding the CapEx growth, and I think last quarter was mentioned around QAR 1.3 billion-QAR 1.4 billion will be on the vessel-related CapEx. I think for this quarter, it is around QAR 150 million or something. How should we look at the spread over the next three quarters in terms of CapEx?
I mean, honestly, I can't comment on the CapEx because it's tied to payment schedules. What you see is a function of payment schedules depending on what our contract dictates, how we make payments for the vessels. It could be free. By second hand, you could see a big spike next year. If it's contracted, it just depends on the contractual terms. Unfortunately, I can't comment on how you're going to see that spread over the next year. As I mentioned, CapEx program is large, and we continue to push forward on acquiring vessels or building vessels.
In terms of commenting on what that trend will look like, it's quite difficult because, again, like I mentioned, either we buy second hand, then you'll see a big spike next quarter of maybe $30 million, $40 million, $50 million, maybe more, or it depends really on the contractual terms of the building program.
All right. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. I'd now like to hand the call back to Bobby Sarkar for final remarks.
Okay. Thank you, Ali. If that's all the questions we have, then I would like to thank Akram and Sami from Milaha Management for taking the time to go over the presentation and answer our questions. Thanks, everyone. We will pick this up again next quarter.
Thank you for attending today's call. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.