Safe and essential services steer SeaLink’s strong performance

Tuesday 24 August 2021

The pandemic has taken its toll on most businesses around the globe but SeaLink’s core operations are principally contracted or non-discretionary essential transport services leading to a very resilient financial result. The market has recognised the new journey that SeaLink is on and the doubling of the share price in the last 12 months reflects the quality of the underlying earnings.

Committed to delivering safe essential services, the last year has been overwhelmingly dominated by the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to SeaLink Travel Group CEO Clint Feuerherdt.

“Although SeaLink is now a global business with operations in London and Singapore, which made management of the pandemic that bit more challenging, we are in a great position to have approximately 90% of our revenue base fully contracted by government or large corporate entities.

“We have anticipated, navigated, and repositioned to finish with a strong balance sheet that supports our growth strategy and ultimate purpose: to become a world leader in delivering essential journeys through safe and intelligent transport solutions whilst creating brilliant customer experiences,” he said.

According to Mr Feuerherdt, operating safely has been critical to the success of the business.

“Safety remains our priority. It is unwavering, especially in the face of a global pandemic.

“We have deployed some of the industry’s most advanced software to ensure the safety of our team, our customers and the communities we service, providing real time updates, communicating hotspots, identifying blackspots and we continue working with our suppliers to further enhance our safety performance.”

SeaLink earlier this year announced the acquisition of Go West Tours for an enterprise value of A$84.7 million, plus an earn-out component of up to A$25 million, which successfully completed on July 1, 2021, marking the company’s expansion into the resource transportation sector.

“We also welcomed two new vessels to the marine business, Parrabah, which was built in Tasmania and now services Bruny Island and Coolgaree Cat, a A$7.3 million vessel that services Palm Island locals and visitors.”

Tender success has also been a key focus for the business, with a suite of new Australian contracts secured across Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia, and internationally, including a large contract that is soon to double the size of the Singapore operations.

“Other highlights include placing Australia’s largest ever order for electric buses, rolling out 37 new electric double decker buses to support key routes around London and ordering Australia’s first two hydrogen fuel cell buses. By the end of FY22, SeaLink expects to be operating at least 55 zero emission buses in its Australian fleet.

“We have also proudly produced our renewed Reconciliation Action Plan, which will further develop important initiatives and partnerships in the communities we service, most recently becoming the first customer of Knowledge Water, a majority-Indigenous-owned sustainable spring water business.

“We are looking forward to another successful year ahead, and I thank our entire team for their continued hard work and commitment during some of the most challenging times we have faced as a team, a community and an industry,” he said.

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