Seaspan reported a decrease in bottom-line quarterly earnings but delivered an improvement in adjusted profit that was better than analysts predicted.

The New York-listed containership owner said its net earnings slumped 55.2% to reach $36.4m in the second quarter, which compares to $81.4m a year earlier.

But the company said normalised earnings jumped 25.1% to $44m. The figure excludes non-cash and one-time items that are typically not part of analyst estimates.

That