News / Revenue up across the board in Q3 as Agility stays on track for 2020 target

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Agility Logistics saw nine-month revenue pass KD1bn ($3.2bn), leading to a double-digit bounce in earnings and staying on track for 2020.

Despite a “tough market”, the Kuwait-headquartered operator saw revenue, EBITDA and net profit increase by 11%-18%, year on year.

Revenue was up 11.1%, while earnings (EBITDA) rose 16.5% to KD97.6m, generating net profit of KD49.2m.

Chief executive Tarek Sultan said the company remained on track to meet its 2020 EBITDA target of $800m.

“Agility’s global logistics business has shown double-digit growth in air and ocean tonnage, and contract logistics revenue growth,” said Mr Sultan.

“Even so, it’s a tough market because capacity constraints and higher freight forwarding rates continue to affect profitability.”

Third-quarter results were equally rosy, with revenue up 15% year-on-year to KD358.m, while EBITDA jumped 18.3% to KD34.2m and net profits climbed 17.4% to KD17.8m.

Agility’s core logistics business, Global Integrated Logistics (GIL), grew its revenue 19.4% year on year to KD273m. In its earnings statement, the company said: “GIL’s commercial strategy is to drive growth through defined solutions, improved sales, and development of efficient tradelanes.

“That strategy has increased revenue across all products and generated growth in all customer segments.”

Air and ocean revenues improved by more than 20%, largely down to a 16.1% increase in air tonnage, while ocean freight volumes grew 12%. Project logistics turnover was up 27.3%.

Mr Sultan said Agility’s infrastructure portfolio saw earnings up 24% to KD29.4m in Q3, on the back of a 4% upturn in revenue.

He went on to note that the company was continuing to invest and grow its footprint in emerging markets across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.