Agility reports on challenging quarter

Supply chain services provider Agility Logistics has reported on its second-quarter financial results, revealing that the group’s revenue fell slightly year on year to 309m Kuwaiti dinars ($1,024m) but that net profit rose by 11% to reach KD15m ($50m).
The company’s Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) business, which handles freight forwarding operations, made KD233m ($772m) in revenue, a 10% decrease over the same quarter of 2015, mainly due to low shipping and fuel rates in the market.
“We started the year on a good note and are sustaining this momentum as the year progresses,” said Tarek Sultan, Agility CEO.
“Within our Global Integrated Logistics business, we are making gains even in the face of a challenging freight forwarding market because we have found ways to be more efficient, improve productivity, demonstrate financial discipline and make operations more responsive to the marketplace and customers’ needs.
“Subdued trade forecasts for the year, to quote the WTO, continue to impact the freight forwarding market,” he continued.
“However, Agility GIL was able to record volume growth in its core air and ocean markets and is focusing on products and markets that are growing despite sluggish overall volumes.
“Growing demand for contract logistics in emerging markets – an area that Agility has long-established market leadership in – coupled with improved yields in the freight business and better commercial discipline has resulted in margin expansion within GIL,” Sultan added.
Agility’s Infrastructure Group, which provides a wide range of logistics services including airport and ground handling services, contributed KD80m ($265m) to the total group revenue figure, an increase of 12% year on year.
“The Infrastructure group continued to show growth in this quarter, driven by new projects and a commitment to improving efficiency and productivity. Each entity is pursuing its individual strategy, with most companies using their strong foundation in the Middle East to actively pursue opportunities to grow in the region, Africa, and elsewhere,” Sultan noted.
"Companies in the Agility Infrastructure Group continue to grow as we tap into excellent opportunities in emerging markets and focus on improving efficiency across the board.”
Sultan was also generally positive about performance as a whole.
“Although the external market environment continues to be a challenge, particularly to our commercial logistics business, we are continuing to improve our financial performance by growing our Infrastructure portfolio of companies and simultaneously driving transformation of our GIL business,” he pointed out.
Note that the figures given by Agility as above are rounded.