HOCHBAHN Annual Report 2015

Annual Report 2015
The increase in other operating expenses by € 2.2 million in 2015 is mainly due to
consultation services in connection with the planned construction of the new U-Bahn
line U5, the study on the processes in the U- Bahn repair and maintenance shop and the
upgrading of DT3 rolling stock.
In the financial year 2015 there were write-downs of € 13.3 million on financial investments.
The exposures of BeNEX GmbH on the local public rail transport market include
a number of transport contracts which are unsatisfactory in terms of profitability. In the
agilis companies, in particular, revenues and passenger numbers failed to meet expectations.
The reasons for this lie in the continuing low fuel prices, which encourage people
to use their private cars to travel, as well as the increasing popularity of intercity coach
services. HOCHBAHN therefore wrote down its participation in BeNEX GmbH by an
amount of € 12.0 million. As part of the restructuring of HanseCom GmbH, further value
adjustment in the amount of € 1.3 million proved necessary.
Due to the changes in presentation required by the German Accounting Law Modernisation
Act (BilMoG), the corresponding differential amounts for long-term provisions are
to be reported under Extraordinary Expenditures as from 1 January 2010. The extraordinary
expenditures of financial year 2015 were, as in the previous year, due to the company’s
exercise of the option to spread the differential amounts of pension provisions
over 15 years.
Despite the considerable rise in overall transport revenues by € 17.8 million in financial
year 2015, the deficit increased year-on-year by € 4.8 million to € 60.2 million (+8.6 %).
This is primarily due to the required write-downs on financial investments. Operational
profitability, in contrast, came in much stronger: EBITDA (annual earnings before loss
absorption, interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) was up over the previous year
by € 15,553,000 at € 44,635,000.
The cost coverage ratio of the company in 2015, at 89.6 %, was slightly (0.4 percentage
points) below the comparable figure for the previous year (90.0 %). This nevertheless still
represents one of the highest levels achieved in Germany and internationally.
Annual deficit (in € million)
Year 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Annual deficit 60.2 55.4 53.5 53.7 55.6
Cost coverage ratio (in %)
Year 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Cost coverage ratio 89.6 90.0 90.3 90.2 89.2
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