Maersk shares plummet on disappointing 2019 guidance

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Shares in Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk plummeted more than 10 percent on Thursday after the company forecast that this year's profits would miss analysts' expectations.

As well as coming in weaker than expected, the 2019 outlook caused some confusion among analysts, Nordnet analyst Per Hansen said.

Maersk expects 2019 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to reach around $5 billion as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), or around $4 billion excluding the effects.

A Reuters poll showed analysts on average expected 2019 EBITDA of $5.32 billion, though it was not immediately clear whether this included the effects of IFRS.

"Thus, there (is) slight disappointment and a little confusion about the numbers which gives a relatively high share drop," Hansen said.

Shares were trading 9.5 percent lower at 0818 GMT.

IFRS-adjusted EBITDA for 2018 came in at $5.0 billion, while the unadjusted number was $3.8 billion, broadly in line with analysts' expectations.

The group, which announced last year it would spin off its offshore drilling operation and list it in Copenhagen, said on Thursday the first day of trading for the new company would be April 4.

The world's biggest container shipper said EBITDA totalled $1.12 billion in the fourth quarter, above the $1.07 billion forecast by analysts.

"Margins in continuing operations were challenged and EBITDA was lower than initially expected at the beginning of the year, primarily due to an increase in bunker fuel prices not fully recovered by higher freight rates," Chief Executive Soren Skou said in a statement.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen; editing by Jason Neely)