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ZIM, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.

Marine Shipping capital-intensive Cyclical

A capital-intensive business, run on heavy physical assets that must be kept working and earn a return above what they cost to maintain.

Latest annual: FY2025 20-F

ZIM · ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$6.9B

−18.1% YoY · 12% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $6.9B 5-yr avg $8.8B

Gross margin 35% 5-yr avg 46%

Operating margin 14.7% 5-yr avg 19.8%

Owner-earnings margin 30% 5-yr avg 37%

Free cash flow margin 30% 5-yr avg 36%

The business in brief

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

Situation: Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 29% and operating margin about 15% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between −49% and 54% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 20-F →

Revenue spreads across 5 regions, the largest Asia Pacific at 42%.

Revenue by geography, FY2025

Asia Pacific42%$2.9B
Latin America11%$784M
Intra Asia11%$747M
Atlantic10%$665M
Cross Suez8%$564M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 20-F. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2018–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMDec 2025
									Income statement
$3.2B	$3.3B	$4.0B	$10.7B	$12.6B	$5.2B	$8.4B	$6.9B	$6.9B	RevenueRevenue
8%	15%	29%	64%	62%	25%	46%	35%	35%	Gross marginGross mgn
($23M)	$153M	$722M	$5.8B	$6.1B	($2.5B)	$2.5B	$1.0B	$1.0B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
−0.7%	4.6%	18.1%	54.2%	48.8%	−48.6%	30.0%	14.7%	14.7%	Operating marginOp. mgn
($126M)	($18M)	$518M	$4.6B	$4.6B	($2.7B)	$2.1B	$479M	$479M	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	3%	18%	23%	—	2%	27%	27%	Effective tax rateTax rate
									Cash flow & returns
$225M	$371M	$881M	$6.0B	$6.1B	$1.0B	$3.8B	$2.3B	$2.3B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$112M	$246M	$314M	$779M	$1.4B	$1.5B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.3B	DepreciationDeprec.
$239M	$143M	$49M	$551M	$94M	$2.2B	$463M	$534M	$534M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$23M	$16M	$43M	$1.0B	$346M	$116M	$214M	$218M	$218M	CapexCapex
0.7%	0.5%	1.1%	9.4%	2.8%	2.2%	2.5%	3.2%	3.2%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$202M	$354M	$838M	$5.2B	$5.8B	$904M	$3.5B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
6.2%	10.7%	21.0%	48.4%	45.9%	17.5%	42.0%	30.2%	30.2%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$202M	$354M	$838M	$5.0B	$5.8B	$904M	$3.5B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Free cash flowFCF
6.2%	10.7%	21.0%	46.3%	45.9%	17.5%	42.0%	30.2%	30.2%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
—	—	—	$536M	$3.3B	$769M	$579M	$516M	$516M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
—	—	194%	101%	78%	-110%	53%	12%	12%	Return on equityROE
—	—	—	89%	22%	−141%	39%	−1%	−1%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
									Balance sheet
$186M	$183M	$570M	$1.5B	$1.0B	$922M	$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.1B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
—	$317M	$520M	$1.3B	$826M	$597M	$934M	$676M	$676M	ReceivablesReceiv.
—	$60M	$52M	$119M	$191M	$179M	$212M	$168M	$168M	InventoryInvent.
—	$422M	$399M	$1.1B	$896M	$566M	$736M	$636M	$636M	Accounts payablePayables
—	($45M)	$173M	$311M	$120M	$209M	$410M	$207M	$207M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
—	$631M	$1.2B	$5.1B	$4.3B	$2.6B	$3.3B	$2.6B	$2.6B	Current assetsCur. assets
—	$926M	$1.2B	$2.8B	$2.7B	$2.5B	$2.6B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
—	0.7×	1.0×	1.8×	1.6×	1.0×	1.2×	1.2×	1.2×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
—	$1.9B	$2.8B	$9.8B	$11.6B	$8.3B	$11.4B	$11.0B	$11.0B	Total assetsAssets
-0.2×	1.0×	3.8×	33.1×	25.6×	-5.6×	5.4×	2.1×	2.1×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
($224M)	($258M)	$267M	$4.6B	$5.9B	$2.5B	$4.0B	$4.0B	$4.0B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
									Per share
100M	100M	100M	115M	120M	120M	120M	120M	120M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$32.48	$33.00	$39.92	$93.21	$104.67	$42.94	$70.02	$57.32	$57.33	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-1.26	$-0.18	$5.18	$40.31	$38.49	$-22.42	$17.84	$3.98	$3.98	EPS (diluted)EPS
$2.02	$3.54	$8.38	$45.10	$48.03	$7.52	$29.40	$17.28	$17.29	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$2.02	$3.54	$8.38	$43.14	$48.03	$7.52	$29.40	$17.28	$17.29	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
—	—	—	$4.66	$27.52	$6.40	$4.81	$4.28	$4.28	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.23	$0.16	$0.43	$8.73	$2.88	$0.96	$1.78	$1.81	$1.81	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-2.24	$-2.58	$2.67	$39.89	$49.07	$20.42	$33.54	$33.38	$33.39	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	7-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+8.5%/yr	+7.5%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+35.8%/yr	+15.6%/yr
EPS	—	−5.1%/yr
Dividends / share	−2.1%/yr (4-yr)	−2.1%/yr (4-yr)
Capital spending / share	+34.6%/yr	+33.5%/yr
Book value / share	—	+65.7%/yr

The record, charted

FY2018–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

120Mpeak FY2025

Gross margin

35%low FY2018

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$2.1Bowner earningsvs.$479Mnet incomelow FY2018

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2018FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned $479M of profit into $2.1B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$479M

Owner earnings$2.1B · 30% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$479M	$2.1B	($2.7B)	$4.6B	$4.6B
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$1.3B	+$1.1B	+$1.5B	+$1.4B	+$779M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$534M	+$463M	+$2.2B	+$94M	+$551M
Cash from operations	$2.3B	$3.8B	$1.0B	$6.1B	$6.0B
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$218M	−$214M	−$116M	−$346M	−$779M
Owner earnings	$2.1B	$3.5B	$904M	$5.8B	$5.2B
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	—	—	—	−$226M
Free cash flow	$2.1B	$3.5B	$904M	$5.8B	$5.0B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	30%	42%	18%	46%	48%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 2.1×

Adequate

Operating income $1.0B ÷ interest expense $491M

What this means
Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? —

Debt under-captured — leverage unknown, not low

What this means
This company pays far more interest than its tagged debt implies (the rest sits under segment dimensions the data source strips), so its net cash or net debt cannot be read honestly: the gap is unknown, not zero, and 'net cash' here would be exactly the fiction the figure is meant to prevent. Judge it on the record and owner earnings instead.
How long is cash tied up? -3d

Negative, funded by others

DSO 36 + DIO 14 − DPO 52 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital —

Debt under-captured

Industry peers: median 9%

What this means
This company's interest bill implies far more debt than its filings tag at the consolidated level (the rest sits under segment dimensions the data source strips), so invested capital, and the return on it, cannot be read honestly. Judge this one on Owner Earnings and the record instead.
Owner-earnings margin 21%

High through the cycle

8-yr median margin, range 6%–48%; latest $2.1B = operating cash $2.3B − maintenance capex $218M

Industry peers: median 12%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 30% of revenue this year, a 21% median across 8 years.
Are earnings backed by cash? 4.80×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $2.3B ÷ net income $479M

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 25%

Reinvests most of it

Dividends + buybacks $516M ÷ Owner Earnings $2.1B

What this means
Of $2.1B Owner Earnings, $516M (25%) went back to shareholders, $516M dividends, $0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 0.17×

Harvesting

Capex $218M ÷ depreciation $1.3B

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 1 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $6.9B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.23×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt —

Debt ≤ working capital · —

What this means
The filings tag only a fraction of the debt this company's interest bill implies (much of it sits under segment dimensions the data source strips), so this test can't be run honestly.
Earnings stability Miss

A profit every year (8-yr record) · 3 loss years

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Miss

Uninterrupted dividends · 5 of 8 yrs

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Miss

Earnings +33% over the record · −118%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-0.19/share (latest year $3.98), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $33.38/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2018–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 5 of 8

What this means
Lost money in 3 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
Operating margin 7% → −1% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
The recent-years average (−1%) sits below the early years (7%), but the latest year (15%) is back near the early level: a cyclical trough dragging the window down, not a one-way slide. The through-cycle median is 15% — read it across the cycle, not on the dip.
Owner earnings growth +39%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 39% a year over the record.
Worst year 2023 · −48.6% op. margin

What this means
Operations went underwater in 2023, understand why before trusting the good years.
Share count +2.7%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
Dividend record paid

What this means
Paid a dividend in 5 of the years on record.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$2.6B

Cash & short-term investments$1.1B
Receivables$676M
Inventory$168M
Other current assets$735M

Current liabilities$2.1B

Debt due within a year$32M
Accounts payable$636M
Other current liabilities$1.5B

Current ratio1.23×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.15×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.49×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$497Mthe cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$32M due · $1.1B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Dec 31, 2025 balance sheet

Deeper floors

Tangible book value$4.0Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($4.4B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$5.7B$5.6B of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$240Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2018–2025

Over the record, the business generated $20.6B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

Reinvested$2.0B · 10%
Dividends$5.7B · 28%
Retained (debt / cash)$12.9B · 63%

Returned to owners$5.7B
30% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $5.7B as dividends and $0 as buybacks.
Net change in share count20.4%
The diluted count rose from 100M to 120M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record$4.28/sh
Paid in 5 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 2% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
Return on what it retained44%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($3.9B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $1.7B, so each retained $1 added about 0.44 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2018–2025.

1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?20.4%
Diluted shares grew 20.4% over 2018–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did reported profit become cash?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

Peers, Marine Shipping

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
CCLCarnival Corp.	$26.6B	38%	15.0%	9%	13%
RCLRoyal Caribbean Cruises	$17.9B	44%	19.4%	7%	22%
NCLHNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.	$9.8B	38%	15.7%	9%	11%
ZIMZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.	$6.9B	32%	16.4%	—	26%
KEXKirby	$3.4B	—	7.7%	4%	10%
MATXMatson	$3.3B	96%	11.4%	11%	12%
PANLPangaea Logistics Solutions Ltd.	$632M	—	7.7%	10%	10%
LPGDorian LPG Ltd.	$482M	—	35.2%	7%	38%
Group median	—	38%	15.3%	—	12%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Enter the home-market price, not the US ADR quote. ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. reports in USD, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio, so it will not reconcile with these figures and would throw the multiple off.

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. has delivered.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. earns about $1.8B on its 25.6% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 30.2% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1.8B) Net of stock comp

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25−15%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’18→’25+39%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $2.1B on 120M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net cash $973M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh ZIM against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (ZIM), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/ZIM, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← ZH its page in the Manual ZJK →

Industry order: ← VIK the Marine Shipping chapter