Global Ports Holding's gross operating margin fell by -80.7% in the third quarter

In the third quarter of this year, the effects of the pandemic of Covid-19 have led to the zeroing of cruise traffic port terminals operated or owned by GPH that follows the -97.1% already marked in the previous quarter. With regard to freight traffic, in the period July-September of 2020 the group's port terminals moveded traffic containerized amounting to about 42,000 teu (-15%) and a volume of other approximately 288,000 tons (+136%).

Commenting today on the group's achievements in the first nine months of 2020, the Chairman and CEO of Global Investment Holdings, Mehmet Kutman, confirmed the group's intention to become a leading terminal operator in the cruise segment, a strategy - he recalled - confirmed by the very recent agreement to sell the port of Antalya at QTerminals ( of the 22nd October 2020).

On the impact of the global health crisis on gih ports, the group specified that the flexibility of the intrinsic to Global Ports Holding's business model, including the widespread use of outsourced service providers, means that many of the items of expenditure expand and contract in line with the evolution of cruise traffic or freight traffic, this should safeguard margins. The group has also specified that the financial results of the for the first time also benefited from the contribution of the port activities acquired in the Caribbean as well as favourable currency environment in Turkey.

"While 2020, a year that the cruise industry world and many of us will want to forget, it comes to an end - he commented the CEO of Global Ports Holding, Emre Sayin - the global cruise industry continues to be and the outlook for 2021 for the sector remain uncertain. Although the cruise activity is recovery in the Mediterranean and Asia, activity levels remain very low. While in the northern hemisphere you are entering the winter season, the effect of the potential the lifting of significant restrictions on travel in Europe cannot be be clearly assessed due to the continuous and even increasing covid-19. In North America and the Caribbean - he observed Sayin -- the cruise companies and ports have placed extensive protocols are in place for Covid-19 and the sector is ready again to start again. However, even if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has effectively replaced its prohibition on navigation with a "Framework for conditional sailing order for cruise ships", however we do not expect that in the short term there will be a significant recovery in cruise activities.'

"The short-term outlook for the sector- continued Sayin -- appear more difficult than there we expected at the time of the half-year results of last August. The first quarter - explained the CEO of GPH - is normally an important period of activity for our Caribbean ports and the absence of cruise activities during this period will have a negative impact activity for the whole of 2021.'