Business, Forwarding, Freight News, Logistics, Road

Virus hits Agility earnings, but it’s not all bad

[ August 17, 2020   //   Chris ]

Agility reported first-half earnings of 8.47 fils per share on net profit of KD 16.2 million, a decrease of 61.3% over the same period in 2019. Earnings declined by 20.1% to KD 75.8 million, and revenue declined 1.3% to KD 765.1 million.

The forwarding and logistics company’s vice chairman and chief executive, Tarek Sultan said: “We entered 2020 with our business on sound footing, which is one reason that we were able to react quickly to the sweeping impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We acted immediately to protect employees, customers, and communities, including providing donated logistics support for local governments and NGOs around the world. We also took steps to bring operating expenses and other costs in line with the new environment. If the crisis has demonstrated anything, it is the essential value of logistics and supply chain providers in times of severe disruption.”

Sultan said the economic fallout from the pandemic has had an uneven effect on Agility businesses. “Our contract logistics business and logistics parks have weathered this reasonably well because demand for storage space has been steady or increased, especially as customers have looked to add to safety stock or support pandemic-driven increases in e-commerce sales.  In many instances, we are experiencing accelerated adoption of disruptive and emerging technologies related to the COVID-19 pandemic or underlying CSR paradigms.  Other Agility businesses, such as aviation and airport operations have been directly impacted by the decline in air travel and traffic and are now pivoting towards the development of pioneering new technologies that will be essential to the re-enablement of global travel.”

Tags: Agility