Quake-damaged Wellington port returns to profit

‘‘Our profitability is back, our cargo volumes are up; we’re sort of moving out of recovery into regeneration and, really, growth.’’ Centreport chief executive Derek Nind

Centreport, the council-owned Wellington port company, has returned to profit, boosted by a rise in trading and quake insurance payments.

The company suffered extensive damage to its land and buildings in the November 2016 earthquake. Port land subsided, huge cranes were out of action for months after jumping off the rails they sit on, and Statistics House partially collapsed.

Yesterday the company revealed an underlying pre-tax profit of $11.8 million for the year to June 30, a figure that excludes earthquake items and changes to the movement in financial instruments. It was a 37 per cent increase on the same measure a year ago.

Centreport’s results continue to be hit by the earthquake, with the financial period including a small impairment from damage that had not been accounted for in the previous year, as well as recovering from insurance.

Including insurance-related items, the company made a $38.1m profit for the year, compared with a $51.7m loss in 2017.

Chief executive Derek Nind said beneath the ‘‘noise’’ in the results created by the earthquake, trading was improving.

‘‘Our profitability is back, our cargo volumes are up; we’re sort of moving out of recovery into regeneration and, really, growth.’’

Operations continued to be disrupted by repairs to its port facilities, including land strengthening. Nind likened the situation to ‘‘growing on one leg’’.

Although container volumes in 2018 were still well down on 2016 levels, log movements, fuel volumes and vehicles are above where they were two years ago.

One very visible issue related to the earthquake remains unresolved, with what was Bank of New Zealand’s Wellington headquarters sitting empty close to two years after the earthquake.

The building was also empty for months after another earthquake in 2013; however, BNZ eventually returned.

Having doggedly insisted that it would return to the building for well over a year after the earthquake, in March the Australian-owned bank announced it was leaving, quickly removing its signage.

Centreport maintained yesterday that it was close to resolving talks with insurers in relation to the building.

‘‘We are continuing to work with our insurance companies and we’re pretty close to a settlement,’’ Nind said. ‘‘We’re not quite there.’’

KEVIN STENT/STUFF What was BNZ’S Wellington headquarters has sat empty since the November 2016 earthquake. Centreport said yesterday that it was still in negotiations with insurers about the future of the building.