(Berlin, August 10, 2005) Deutsche Bahn AG remained on track for success during the first half of 2005. “We were able to significantly increase our revenues and have once again made powerful gains in terms of profit over the same year-ago period,” said DB CEO Hartmut Mehdorn, who continued, “in light of the cloudy overall economic outlook here in Germany, we are especially pleased at the increase in volumes sold in rail passenger transport, along with the excellent business of our logistics subsidiary Schenker.”
Group revenues were about € 12.2 billion for the first six months of the year, up 3.8 percent over the same year-ago figure (€ 11.7 billion). On a comparable basis – adjusted for the effects of the sale of Mitropa AG and Deutsche Touring GmbH – the gain in Group revenues was even more impressive, at 4.2 percent. The long-distance transport and Schenker business units experienced especially favorable development, with growth in the three-digit million range in both areas. Major factors in this trend in long-distance transport included the company’s attractive offers, such as the spring special and the Lidl ticket campaign, along with outstanding passenger response to the high-speed Hamburg–Berlin and Cologne–Frankfurt connections. The other business units involved in passenger transport – DB Regional and DB Urban Transport – also achieved slight gains. Schenker was able to benefit from the continuation of more favorable overall economic data abroad, achieving excellent growth rates in air and ocean freight in particular and expanding its market position. The same was also true of the European land transport segment, where there is heavy pressure on margins due to more intense competition.
Volumes sold in rail passenger transport rose by 1.5 percent, to 34.4 billion passenger-kilometers (Pkm). This development enabled the DB Group to once again make slight gains in its position on the German passenger transport market, which declined by about a good one percent. The long-distance transport segment made especially significant gains, posting a total of 15.8 billion Pkm, up 3.1 percent over the same year-ago period.
Volumes sold in rail freight transport suffered a decline of 3.3 percent from the same year-ago period, to 40.3 billion ton-kilometers (tkm), while initial estimates showed slight growth in the overall market.
The results of operations after interest rose by € 97 million, to € 35 million. The increase was primarily due to the development in the passenger transport and transport and logistics segments. Gains were also seen in cash flow, which rose by 10.7 percent to € 1,243 million, and EBITDA, which increased by € 126 million to € 1,588 million.