Copenhagen: Shipping group AP Moller-Maersk on Thursday joined a growing list of companies preparing to call a halt to doing business with Iran, casting doubts on whether European leaders can keep alive a nuclear deal with Tehran.
Maersk’s move comes a day after French energy group Total and other European companies signalled they could exit Iran ahead of a reimposition of sanctions following the United States’ decision to pull out of the Iran accord.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that the European Union must protect European Union companies doing business with Iran from US sanctions.
But Macron, joining EU leaders for a summit in Bulgaria, also said he recognised that big companies would want to protect their own interests.
“International companies with interests in many countries make their own choices according to their own interests. They should continue to have this freedom,” he said.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran means European countries that have since invested in the country will be at risk once new sanctions come into effect.
No new booking
Maersk Chief Executive Soren Skou said: “With the sanctions the Americans are to impose, you can’t do business in Iran if you also have business in the US, and we have that on a large scale.” “I don’t know the exact timing details, but I am certain that we’re also going to shut down [in Iran],” Skou said in an interview following Maersk’s first-quarter earnings.
MSC, the world’s second biggest container shipping group after Maersk, said on Wednesday it would stop taking new booking for Iran.
Other companies which have warned they would wind down business in Iran following reinstated sanctions include German insurer Allianz, Siemens and Danish oil product tanker operator Maersk Tankers, previously owned by the Maersk conglomerate.
Maersk’s Skou said higher oil prices which followed the US withdrawal were hitting its container shipping business because of higher bunker fuel prices.
First-quarter performance
The company missed first-quarter profit expectations on Thursday and warned that political and trade tensions clouded the outlook, sending shares in the world’s biggest container shipper sharply lower.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the three months to March 31 rose 5 per cent to $669 million but came in well below the $852 million (Dh3.1 billion) forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Skou called the result “unsatisfactory” but said he still expected Ebitda for the year at $4 billion-$5 billion.
Maersk shares fell almost 12 per cent after the results to near 18-month lows, although quarterly revenue at $9.3 billion topped analysts’ forecasts of $8.8 billion.
By 1241 GMT the shares were down 8.8 per cent at 9,262 Danish crowns.
Analysts at Jefferies said disappointment stemmed in part from “relatively sluggish underlying volume growth” of 2.2 per cent, short of an expected increase of 3-4 per cent.
Container freight rates rose 7 per cent, but the cost of shipping a container increased 12 per cent, partly as a result of higher oil prices, Skou said.
