DHL pre-tax nine-month profit flat at US$2.3 billion, revenues up 5.8pc

DEUTSCHE-POST DHL has announced its nine-month financial results, seeing an EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) flat at EUR1.8 billion (US$2.3 billion), drawn on a 5.8 per cent revenue growth to EUR40.9 billion.

Also, the company said its revenues during the third quarter continued to increase to EUR13.8 billion, up 5.7 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.

Besides the favourable exchange rates, the company said this increase "reflects the ongoing organic revenue growth produced by all three DHL divisions. These businesses continue to benefit from their strong market position in the world's growth markets - particularly in Asia. As a result, the profit of the logistics division as a whole continued to increase."

DHL Express performed best with a 9.8 per cent growth in revenue, attributing to a 23.4 per cent year-on-year increase in the first three quarters.

The company said the demand for express service has been strong due to strong increase in "Time Definite International" (TDI) service. Revenues and volumes experienced apparent rise in Asia and the Americas region with good business in the US.

In freight forwarding, air freight revenues dropped only 0.4 per cent while volumes declined six per cent year on year. Conversely, ocean freight revenues rose 6.3 per cent with 4.8 per cent increase in volumes. Demand at DHL Freight was almost flat with a 1.1 per cent revenue growth, contributing to the nine-month EBIT of EUR346 million in this business.

Its supply chain business saw the highest revenue growth of 10.4 per cent for the nine months, but after being adjusted by the exceptional and foreign exchange fluctuations, the growth was 3.8 per cent with EBIT margins edging up to 2.8 per cent from 2.7 per cent in the same period last year.

But the mail business suffered from additional taxes and saw volumes falling in most key sectors except for parcels, resulting in a decrease of EBIT by over 20 per cent.