MISC, the world's largest operator of liquefied natural gas tankers by fleet size, plans to exit the container shipping operations, which have been weighing down its results over the last three financial years.
The Malaysian carrier will pull out of the container shipping business by June 30, 2012, reported Dow Jones Newswires.
MISC will incur a one-time cost of US$400 million due to the move, resulting in a loss for the financial year ending December 2011, but will be positive for earnings over the longer term, the company said in stock exchange filings.
The company reported separately a 62 percent drop in net profit for the July-September period at $44.22 million compared with $115.85 million during the same three months a year earlier. Revenue slipped 15.2 percent to $821.7 million from $969.11million.
It blamed depressed aframax freight rates, lower liftings and high bunker costs for the weak results in the quarter. MISC has recently changed its financial year from end-March end to end-December.
"The exit process will involve the withdrawal from various trade alliances and termination of related service and operational contracts," MISC said, adding that the process includes disposal of its related assets.
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