More passengers, more revenue, more operating profit and still a loss after a small surplus was reported a year ago on the way out of the pandemic - the airport group Fraport presented this double-edged half-year balance sheet on Tuesday.

The stake in the Russian airport in St. Petersburg is the reason why Fraport expects less profit in the revised annual outlook.

Timo Kotowski

Editor in Business.

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The forecast was reduced from a surplus of 50 to 150 million euros to 0 to 100 million.

The first half of the year ended with a deficit of 53.1 million euros, in the first half of 2021 Fraport had earned 15.4 million euros.

"In view of the sanctions, we have written off our stake in St. Petersburg out of commercial prudence," said Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte in an interview with the FAZ

Open loan receivables of EUR 163.3 million are now reported as zero.

“Nevertheless, we are convinced that we will not make a loss for the year as a whole.

And we're making sure nothing negative will follow because of this involvement," he said.

Rather, one hopes that one day positive things will become possible.

"But we are sticking to our standards and hope to get our commitment back," says Schulte.

“The complete impairment of our loan receivable is not to be confused with a separation from the participation.

Contractually, a sale is still excluded until 2025.”

Sales increase faster than earnings

On the stock exchange, the Russia effect on the Fraport balance sheet did not affect the share price, the Fraport paper was even on the winning side in the M-Dax average value index.

This was made possible by the prospect of more passengers traveling again after a long period of reluctance.

In the first half of the year, group sales rose by 66 percent to 1.3 billion euros, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization grew by 22 percent to 408.3 million euros.

Schulte attributes the fact that the increase could not keep up with the sales development to one-off bookings in the past year.

“The figures for 2021 included special effects, including the reimbursement of maintenance costs by the federal government because we kept operations running throughout the pandemic.

If you eliminated all special effects, our half-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization would have increased from 33 million to 408 million,” he says.

Fraport is now targeting up to 50 million passengers for Frankfurt Airport this year, compared to the previous target of 46 million.

“The year started with a very weak first quarter with around 60,000 passengers a day. We are currently counting up to 180,000 passengers, which clearly shows the ramp-up in operations.

Nevertheless, in the second quarter we were 28 percent below the level of 2019," says Schulte.