Agility first-quarter net income climbs on higher revenue

Revenue in the first three months of the year jumped 22.3% to $430m

Kuwait and Dubai-listed Agility said its revenue jumped more than 22 per cent in the first three months of 2022. AFP

Kuwait-based Agility, one of the biggest logistics companies in the Middle East and North Africa, reported a 1 per cent rise in first quarter net income as revenue climbed.

Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company for the three-month period to the end of March climbed to 12.8 million Kuwaiti dinars ($41.7m), including income from discontinued operations of its unit Global Integrated Logistics, Agility said in a regulatory filing to the Dubai Financial Market, where its share are traded.

Quarterly profits before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation surged almost 72 per cent to 34m dinars. The company’s revenue at the end of March jumped 22.3 per cent to 132.1m dinars.

“We started the year on a good note, with our controlled businesses reporting healthy growth year over year," Agility vice chairman Tarek Sultan said in a statement on the company website. "Despite challenging market and geopolitical conditions, we expect continued growth and performance in our operations this year."

The company will continue to focus on accelerating growth "organically and inorganically", he said.

In 2021, Agility sold its core logistics business, GIL, to Danish company DSV Panalpina, which is the world’s third-largest freight and logistics provider, in exchange for 19.3 million shares in DSV. Agility reported a one-time gain of about 1 billion dinars and is now the second-largest shareholder in DSV with an 8 per cent stake.

The January-March earnings are the first quarterly numbers reported by Agility since the GIL deal. Agility will report profit for two segments ― controlled businesses and investments ― to better reflect the company's valuation the performance of each segment, it said.

In March, Agility said it will fully acquire UK-based John Menzies for £571m ($751m) through its unit National Aviation Services to create an airport services giant amid a steady recovery in air travel from the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a combined company, Menzies and NAS are expected to be the largest airport services company in the world by the number of countries in which they operate. They are the second largest in terms of airports served and the third-largest company in combined revenue that topped $1.5bn in 2021.

"Our recent offer for Menzies Aviation is a good example of our growth commitment," Mr Sultan said. "For our investment segment, DSV is our largest holding and we continue to believe in DSV’s long-term growth and in the freight forwarding sector.”

The company will continue to look for opportunities to expand its investment portfolio, he said.

"We believe we can create value for our shareholders by investing in companies in high-growth sectors with strong fundamentals, strong, proven management teams, best-practices governance and alignment with our vision and values,” he said.

Agility’s total assets reached 2.8bn dinars, while its net debt stood at 385.2m dinars as of the end of March. Its operating cash flow reached 22.7m for the first quarter of 2022, the company said.