Europe’s competitive environment was a central focus in Moffatt & Nichol’s commercial and technical advisory services to support the analysis of strategic options for a container terminal in Western Europe.
The commercial advisory aspect of the assignment involved a market overview and assessment of the global and European container terminal sectors. A key focus was an evaluation of the competitive environment within Western Europe from both a port and shipping line perspective, with a specific focus on port owners, terminal operators, carrier affiliations and associated shipping strategies as well as trade lane and volume trends, and the future shipping strategy for the region.
A targeted review of the specific container terminal in question addressed the asset’s competitive landscape, its captive and discretionary catchment areas, its current and future market position, customer relationships, and management’s short and long-term strategies and business model for the facility. A detailed assessment of the historical performance of the terminal was undertaken, which focused on key components of the business plan.
Moffatt & Nichol developed a five-year business plan and a 20-year (2020–2040) long-term set of projections, incorporating an assessment of the impacts that Covid-19 has had on the business, and formulated bottom-up assumptions to drive the forecast volumes, prices and Opex. The commercial team worked in parallel and in close collaboration with the technical team in order to understand the implications of past Capex deployments and their impact on terminal performance and ensure consistency across both reports and model inputs. Moffatt & Nichol applied a structured modelling approach using FAST (Flexible, Appropriate, Structured and Transparent), allowing for efficient and effective scenario analyses and stress testing internally.
