Evergreen tipped to lift result

TAIWAN's Evergreen Marine Corp is expected to outperform its 1992 results this year due to its consistent maintenance of higher operating margins and successful vertical integration, says S.G. Warburg Securities.

The brokerage, in a report on Evergreen Marine, said the company stocks outperformed the Taiwan Stock Exchange Index (TSEI) by over 10 per cent last year.

''It has also overtaken the index by 12 per cent since the beginning of 1993,'' it says.

As Evergreen is the single largest maritime importer to the United States, and second largest carrier of US manufactured exports abroad, the company was also one of the stocks most highly geared to the US recovery, it adds.

The brokerage said Evergreen compared quite favourably with both local and major foreign container shippers, with a relatively low 1993 price earning rate and a mere 21 per cent gearing.

Its low bank borrowings would limit the effects of firming local interest rates, it said.

Evergreen is currently the world's second largest container shipping company in terms of fleet employed, and by far the largest in terms of fleet owned.

The company now operates a 51-vessel fleet, 17 of which belong to Evergreen International Panama SA, for which it acts as agent.

The company will operate a fleet of 54 vessels as of June 1993 and will act as agent for 20 ships flagged out to Evergreen International SA (Panama).

Its sheer size allows it to operate six integrated container services, including extensive co-operative feeder and inland transportation arrangements.

The brokerage said the Transatlantic Rate Stabilisation Agreement (TSA), which increased shipping rates between 20 and 30 per cent, would benefit non-members such as Evergreen.

The TSA members also named Mr George Hsu, the new president of Evergreen Marine as chairman of the TSA to replace Mr George Hayashi, who is president and chief executive of American President Lines, from July 1.

Evergreen SA would take delivery of three super-sized R-class vessels this year, marking the first increase in its fleet since 1989, the brokerage said.

Another favourable factor for the line was that some 95 per cent of Evergreen Marine revenues were denominated in US dollars whereas only about 70 per cent of its expenses were paid in foreign currency, it added.

Evergreen Marine's subsidiary EVA Airways should achieve profitability by early 1995 and Evergreen Heavy Industries also would record profits this year as a result of the company's aggressive container buying programme, the brokerage said.

S.G. Warburg said Evergreen's services concentrated on the axial trades such as the east-west container trades linking Europe, North America and the Far East.

It was the transpacific route whose rates remained the most buoyant in 1992, while most transatlantic carriers continued to report sharp losses.

''The company's concentration on the transpacific trade has allowed it to avoid the deterioration in profits that transatlantic shippers experienced,'' the brokerage said.

Over half of Evergreen's revenues were believed to be derived from the transpacific trade, most of which were concentrated between East Asian and North American west coast ports, it said.