Port Otago misses out on a dividend from Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) for the third consecutive year, as its Canterbury competitor continues its rebuild its earthquake-damaged infrastructure.
LPC has about $52 million in earthquake-claimable items.
has received $35.7 million from progress payments so far and has a further $10 million lodged recently. More claims are expected in the future, chairman Rodger Fisher said in the annual report.
"We will continue to work with our lead insurer to resolve the outstanding issues regarding business interruption insurance and finalise claims for indemnity payments relating to destroyed assets, as well as reaching agreement on the process for the port rebuild, on an asset-by-asset basis," Mr Fisher said.
Until insurance matters were resolved, dividend suspension would be continued and Mr Fisher asked shareholders to be patient over the "not ideal" situation.
The Christchurch City Council is the majority LPC shareholder, followed by the 15.5% stake held by Port Otago which it bought for $37 million in 2006, effectively grabbing a block to takeover proposals at the time.
Port Otago's stake has been written down recently by $5.22 million to about $31.7 million.
Port Otago says it wants to maintain the holding as a strategic interest to preserve options.
Shares in LPC had risen from $2.05 during the past month, but were unchanged at $2.15 after the announcement on Thursday.
LPC revenue was up 14% from $91.6 million to $104.5 million, earnings before interest, tax and amortisation grew 4.4% from $32.2 million to $33.6 million while after-tax profit was down 28% from $24.1 million to $17.2 million.
However, LPC also gave an earthquake-adjusted after-tax profit, increasing 40% from last year's $12.1 million to $17 million.
Container handling reached a record 336,182 TEUs (20ft container equivalents) for the year.
Coal volumes rose to record levels also, by more than 15%, to 2.44 million tonnes and dry bulk goods of fertiliser and cement combined rose more than 17% to 534,164 tonnes, with expectations of further gains this year.
A critical part of LPC's rebuild, is its 10ha reclamation area where debris from Christchurch has so far filled in 2.7ha.
"As earthquake-related repair works are rolled out through the port, the reclamation will provide much-needed additional infrastructure and cargo-handling space to support the company's rebuild programme," the report said.
