Panalpina, one of the world's leading forwarding and logistics service providers, announced new appointments to its Board of Directors and reports further revenue and earnings growth in the first half of 2005.

At its general assembly of August 23, the sole shareholder has approved an extension of the Board of Directors from five to seven members. Apart from the resignations of Heinz Kuhnlein and Heinrich Walti, both of whom have been thanked for their longstanding valuable cooperation, four new board members were elected.

The new Board of Directors of Panalpina World Transport (Holding) Ltd. constitutes of Gerhard Fischer (Chairman), Wilfried Rutz (Vice Chairman) and Roger Schmid as well as of the four new members Gunther Casjens (CEO Nordcapital Holding, Hamburg), Rudolf W. Hug (Consultant, Zurich), Yuichi Ishimaru (Special Advisor of Marubeni Corporation, Tokyo) and Glen R. Pringle (Development Director of Retirement Systems of Alabama, Montgomery, USA).

According to Chairman Gerhard Fischer, "...the new members will further enhance the industrial competency of the board and will help to ensure that the group's leadership stays in experienced hands in view of the further growth strategy."

Despite a slow start in the first quarter, Panalpina succeeded in raising its net forwarding revenue by 11.3% in the first half of 2005 (14.1% excluding currency impact) compared with the same period in the previous year.

Gross profit grew by 5.9% (7.7% currency adjusted) to CHF 684.0 million in spite of increasing shipment costs as a result of a cyclical supply-demand imbalance. EBIT for the first six months increased by 14.7% compared to the same period in 2004 to CHF 70.5 million. Consolidated net earnings amounted to CHF 55.6 million, growing 22.5% compared to the previous year.

CEO Bruno Sidler commented: "We are very pleased with the double digit growth we have achieved by gaining market share in our fragmented and steadily growing industry, as well as with the substantial increase in net profits. Although we are confident regarding the rest of the year, we will consequently follow through with our on-going cost optimization program."