Agility, a leading global logistics provider, has reported a net profit of KD18.9 million ($62.66 million), or 15.2 fils per share during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018, an increase of 29.8 per cent compared to Q1 2017.
Revenue for the quarter reached KD 371.8 million ($1.23 billion) and EBITDA was KD 37.7 million ($125 million), said a statement.
Tarek Sultan, CEO and vice chairman, Agility, said: “We continue to deliver results. Our double-digit EBITDA growth affirms the company’s momentum over the past three years.”
“Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) continues to drive profitability gains through strong performance in ocean and air freight, in addition to improving its efficiency. Companies in the Infrastructure group posted healthy gains and are delivering consistent with their road map,” he said.
In Q1 2018, GIL gross revenue grew 15.7 per cent to KD 278.1 million ($922.1 million). Air freight revenue increased 22.1 per cent, driven by strong volume growth (4.8 per cent increase in air tonnage) and ocean freight revenue grew 14 per cent as a result of an 11.5 per cent increase in TEUs. Contract Logistics revenue increased 15.1 per cent and road freight showed 8.4 per cent revenue improvement in Q1 2018, it said.
GIL’s Q1 net revenue (NR) rose 7.9 per cent from the same period in 2017, primarily due to growth in freight forwarding and contract logistics. Air NR grew by 18.7 per cent due to improving yields, and Ocean NR increased 7.1 per cent, it added.
Contract Logistics NR increased by 5.8 per cent. However, GIL’s NR margin was 23.3 per cent, down from 24.9 per cent during the same period a year earlier due to yield pressure in road freight and project logistics.
Regionally, air freight and ocean freight performed well in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas. Contract logistics continued its solid growth, primarily in Middle East and Asia Pacific, as a result of effective utilisation of facilities, said a statement.
Q1 EBITDA reached KD7.4 million ($24.53 million) with margin expanding to 2.7 per cent, compared with 2.4 per cent in Q1 2017.
GIL continues to drive performance through its “focus and capability” strategy, which focuses on driving growth by committing to defined solutions, customer segments, sales productivity and efficient trade lane development.
In addition, GIL is driving its technology-based transformation by building systems and solutions that enable business insight, efficiencies, and productivity for customers and operations. Further, it is developing tools to better serve customers online.
Sultan continued: “We recently launched Shipa Freight, an online freight service aimed at a market with massive potential: the small and medium-size companies that account for most of the world’s businesses.”
“Shipa Freight lets them get rate quotes and book, pay and track, ocean and air shipments around the world, all online in a matter of seconds,” he added.
Agility’s Infrastructure Companies
First quarter revenue for the infrastructure group grew 20.7 per cent, and EBITDA increased 24.6 per cent to KD 34.1 million ($113.06 million) as margins expanded from 33.5 per cent to 34.6 per cent. Agility continues to invest in those companies to drive its future growth.
Agility Industrial Real Estate (Red) continues to improve the efficiency of its Kuwaiti assets by offering a range of warehousing services to its customers. Red will soon deliver the first 80,000-sq-m warehouses in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In Africa, Agility is growing its existing operations and identifying new locations to develop new logistics parks.
Tristar, a fully integrated liquid logistics company, won new turnkey contracts in Q1. Tristar continues to invest and diversify its operations by expanding in shipping and broadening its geographic reach.
National Aviation Services (NAS) operations posted good growth in the first quarter. Contributing to its growth were the successful launch of operations in Uganda and significant improvement in Cote d’Ivoire and Afghanistan. NAS was also able to improve its business performance in Morocco and Tanzania, with the latter expecting a very good year and turnaround in 2018.
UPAC, a leading real estate and facilities management company in the Middle East, continues to improve the operational efficiencies of key operations in Kuwait. UPAC is developing the 450-store Reem Mall in Abu Dhabi in partnership with National Real Estate Company (NREC).
GCS, a company specialised in customs modernisation, showed improved performance in the first quarter. GCS manages all customs’ activities at ports of Kuwait and aims to enhance customs modernization through its services.
Sultan said: “Our company is accelerating a fast-moving transformation to establish itself as a digital leader in the logistics industry.”
“We are rapidly introducing new digital products, aggressively piloting and pioneering new logistics models and technologies, and re-engineering our systems for speed and competitive advantage. We want to identify technology that makes logistics more efficient and lowers costs for customers,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service
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