Trencor, a JSE-listed company that owns 48.25% of shipping container leasing group Textainer, reported a loss of R57m for the year to end-December from the previous year's R2bn profit.
The loss was due to the group impairing its container fleet by R1.9bn to reflect its resale value, its results statement released on Monday showed.
Despite the accounting loss, Trencor declared a final dividend of R2.20, taking its total dividend for the year to R3, a 12% increase from the previous year's R2.67. Revenue grew 15% to R9.3bn.
Textainer's net profit before impairment provision was $107.3m, down 37% from the previous year's $171.1m.
Its average fleet utilisation for the year was 96.8%, an improvement from the previous year's 96.1%.
At the end of last year, Textainer owned 80.1% of its total fleet of more than three million "20-foot equivalent unit" shipping containers.
Trencor said its results had been delayed due to the complexity of translating Textainer's results prepared under the US's generally accepted accounting principles (Gaap) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) required by the JSE. "A decline in market conditions meant that differences in accounting treatment between US Gaap and IFRS, in the areas of impairment testing and a revision of the residual values of the container fleets, caused significant differences in financial results reported under the respective accounting conventions," the company said.
"The complex and time-consuming calculations required to make the necessary IFRS adjustments for the large owned container fleets resulted in a delay in the issuance of these results."
Source: BDpro