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Storage terminal operator Royal Vopak has announced that net profit attributable to holders of ordinary shares - excluding exceptional items - rose by EUR 10.6 million, or 4 percent, to EUR 275.4 million, up from EUR 264.8 million in 2010.

Group operating profit (EBIT) - excluding exceptional items - increased by EUR 24.1 million, or 5 percent, to EUR 469.4 million, up from EUR 445.3 the previous year.

Commenting on the results, Eelco Hoekstra, Chairman of the Executive Board of Royal Vopak, said: "2011 has been a year of global uncertainties resulting from the financial crisis in the western world. With the disciplined execution of our strategy, Vopak was and still is well positioned to mitigate the impact of those uncertainties while identifying new business opportunities. In 2011, Vopak entered the natural gas market with the opening of Gate terminal in the Netherlands and the acquisition of the Altamira LNG Terminal in Mexico. Vopak also established a first footprint in India by acquiring a terminal in the port of Kandla and started operations at the new Vopak Terminal Amsterdam Westpoort.

"In order to strengthen our competitive position, we will remain focused on offering reliable services to our customers based on a safety-focused culture and efficient operations. We will continue to concentrate on our core activities, while maintaining a long-term entrepreneurial view on future opportunities. The expected growth of global energy use and the increasing geographical imbalance between production and (industrial) consumption continue to drive the need for storage of liquid oil, gas and chemical products. In order to meet the increased need, Vopak will continue to operate and invest in strategically located seaports which play a key role in facilitating these product flows. Based on its growth strategy, Vopak expects to realize a higher Group operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2012 and an EBITDA between EUR 725-800 million in 2013.”

Please find below the company's comments on developments in key markets.

Oil

The geographical imbalances between production and consumption have fueled the need for physical transportation of bulk liquid oil products, to a large extent independently of crude oil prices and the more speculative trading environment. Bulk liquid oil storage services fulfill an essential role in the supply chain of Vopak’s customers, including large oil majors and national oil companies, with whom we cooperate in long-term business relationships. The increasing geographical imbalances lead to an increasing demand for services at strategically positioned (hub) terminals, such as Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Fujairah (UAE), Tallinn (Estonia), and Singapore, which are critical to the success of the network strategy for crude oil and oil products.

The increased focus of the major oil companies on upstream activities and related possible closures and divestments of less efficient refineries will further impact the need for physical transportation and storage of crude oil and oil products. This has been reinforced by the increasing import demand from a large number of emerging countries, including China, India and Brazil.

Chemicals

The demand for the storage and handling of chemicals in 2011 was encouraging. The investments in the large-scale production of chemicals in the Middle East and China, in combination with the growth in consumption in large parts of Asia and Latin America, have had a permanent effect on the worldwide logistics flows of chemical products. Vopak’s worldwide tank terminal network, combined with our agility, provide us with an excellent position to seize these new opportunities.

Biofuels

Vopak’s varying experiences in the market for the storage of biofuels continued in the first six months of 2011. Due to the continuing uncertainty about tax incentives and lack of clarity on crossborder regulations, in particular in Europe and North America, the market players have reconsidered their position in the biofuels market. In the second half of 2011, we experienced some positive signs, including the implementation of the first European Certification schemes for biodiesel products. However, the uncertainties on subsidies and potential new developments in legislation remain. Despite the current uncertainties, governments and customers across the world have formulated binding long-term objectives for the use of biofuels. Vopak will continue to focus on the key developments in this relative young market segment. The products are usually stored at existing terminals, and the tanks used can often be interchanged for the storage of certain chemicals or vegetable oils.

The challenge for Vopak is to proactively turn these key market developments into customerspecific solutions in strategically positioned seaports across the world. Our long-term business success in this respect is whether we are able to:

- meet different customer needs by increasing flexibility, offering fast ship turnaround times, setting high quality and safety standards, and offering specific services, such as blending;

- offer the highest quality infrastructure and a wide array of tank types and sizes, jetty capacity, truck and rail loading stations and blending capacity; and

- offer deep-water access, hinterland connections, land availability, and operating permits for handling bulk liquid products.

Storage capacity developments

In February 2011, Vopak sold its 20% equity stake in BORCO (Bahamas), resulting in a reduction of the total storage capacity by 3.4 million cbm. Furthermore, the Ipswich terminal (UK) was partly returned to the port authorities and partly sold. During 2011 new capacity was commissioned at MOT (the Netherlands), Europoort (the Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Vlaardingen (the Netherlands), Caojing (China) and Aratu (Brazil). These expansions increased the capacity in total by 769,600 cbm in 2011. The capacity further increased in 2011 by 1,721,600 cbm due to the acquisitions of the Altamira LNG terminal in Mexico and the Kandla Terminal in India and the opening of the new Vopak Terminal Amsterdam Westpoort phase 1 and Gate terminal, both in the Netherlands.

Since the end of 2010, following the specific 2011 storage capacity developments, our worldwide capacity decreased by 1.0 million cbm from 28.8 million cbm to 27.8 million cbm by the end of December 2011. All projects currently under construction will add 6.0 million cbm of storage capacity in the period up to and including 2014.

A large part of the capacity growth is related to meeting storage demand resulting from the positive oil and gas market developments. Vopak’s focus is on growing in selected strategic locations.

Although Vopak’s estimated total market share in global independent tank storage decreased from 11.1% in 2010 to 10.6% in 2011, based on the announced expansions, Vopak is well positioned in strategic key locations.

Subsequent Events

- In January 2012, Vopak decided to expand its storage capacity at Vopak Terminal Europoort (the Netherlands) for middle distillates by 400,000 cbm. After completion of the expansion in the first half year of 2014, the total storage capacity will be 3.9 million cbm. The expansion consists of 8 new tanks of 50,000 cbm each and meets the structural growing demand for tank storage of various petroleum products in Northwest Europe.

- On 2 February 2012, Vopak reached agreement with 14 of the 15 lenders of the EUR 1.2 billion senior unsecured multicurrency revolving credit facility about the extension of the facility with one additional year. With this addition the remaining maturity of four years has been extended to a remaining maturity of 5 years for an amount of EUR 1.1 billion. A second mutual option period of one year extension will be applicable towards the end of 2012. With this agreement the maturity date of EUR 1.1 billion of the original revolving credit facility of EUR 1.2 billion has been postponed from 2 February 2016 to 2 February 2017. At year-end 2011, EUR 100 million was drawn under this facility.

Outlook

Projects under construction will add 6.0 million cbm of storage capacity in the years up to and including 2014 and result in a total storage capacity of 33.8 million cbm. The total investment for Vopak and partners in these projects involves capital expenditure of some EUR 1.9 billion, of which Vopak’s total remaining cash spend will be some EUR 0.5 billion. Some significant expansion projects like Fujairah (UAE), Vopak Terminal Amsterdam Westpoort phase 2 (the Netherlands), and Eemshaven (the Netherlands) will be commissioned during 2012.

Vopak expects the market for storage and handling of oil products to remain robust, and an encouraging market for chemical storage services. The mixed developments in the market for storage and handling of biofuels are expected to continue throughout 2012. The market for storage and regasification of LNG is expected to remain solid. Based on its growth strategy, Vopak expects to realize a higher Group operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in 2012 and an EBITDA between EUR 725-800 million in 2013 (2011: EUR 636.0 million).