Chelsea Losses Decline To P403 Million

The Chelsea Group’s recovery continued during the third quarter with a narrower net loss driven by continued rational cost-containment measures as well as a slight year-on-year improvement in revenues led by its freight and logistics businesses.

Photo Insert: A Chelsea Shipping Corporation vessel

For the quarter, the Group reported ₱403 M operating losses, lower by 60% year-on-year while its revenues jumped 52% to ₱1,142M. On a cumulative basis for the year, the Group reported a narrower net loss, 15% less to ₱2.203 B despite a 2% decline in revenues to ₱3.272 B.

EBITDA was substantially up from P218 M to ₱804 M during the same period. 3Q2021 is the second quarter that the Group’s shipping segment reported positive year-on-year revenue growth since the first Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) restriction was imposed in March 2020.

This positive growth was driven by the freight segment but unfortunately pulled down by continued weakness from its passage and tanker businesses.

Chelsea Group’s freight business rose 58% year-on-year from ₱1,286 M to ₱2,035 M with revenues flat in the first two quarters while Q3 revenues increased by 27% to P794M from Q2 and 1.5 times on a quarter-on-quarter surge in the same quarter the previous year.

This is positive proof of the recovery slowly happening in the shipping industry for certain segments.

On a year-to-date basis, freight revenues were at 62% of the total Group revenues, higher compared to 39% share for the same period last year. Unfortunately, the passage and tanker segments remain challenged with continued restrictions on inter-island travel and on the movement of petroleum products.

Passage revenues for the quarter doubled year-on-year which can be attributed to low-base effects with the P50 M in revenues only accounting for 4% of the quarter’s total.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic