Kuwait's Agility reports increased profits

06 August 2017

Logistics firm says increased operational income supported profit jump in first half

Kuwait’s Agility has reported an 11.6 per cent jump in net profit for the first half of 2017 as income from operations grew.

The logistic firm’s net income for the first six months of 2017, ending 30 June, climbed to KD31.4m ($103.94m) from KD29.13m recorded for the same period in 2016, Agility revealed in a statement to Dubai Financial Market (DFM), where its shares are traded. Net operating profit grew 19.7 per cent to KD469m while its basic earning per share grew by 12 per cent.

Agility recorded a 7 per cent increase in total assets to KD1.6bn, while its total liabilities climbed 8.3 per cent to KD625.4m. The company’s second-quarter net profit also rose by 12 per cent to KD16.8m, driven by its infrastructure division.

The firm operates through two business lines of global logistics services and a portfolio of infrastructure companies, focused on emerging markets to facilitate trade. In November, Agility’s chief executive, Tarek Abdul Aziz Sultan al-Essa, told MEED that the company is not changing its strategy of focusing on emerging markets and will continue investing in new technologies to improve efficiency and “keep shareholders happy”.

Going forward, the company expects a reduction in legal fees following the settlement of a US court case in May. The fall in legal expenses will partially be reflected in its third-quarter results, with most of the impact expected in the last quarter of 2017.

The firm is also embroiled in legal dispute with the government of Iraq, and currently awaits the decision of arbitration it had filed over a $380m investment in Iraq’s Korek Telecom.

In April, Agility announced a $229.6m investment plan to add 900,000 square metres of new warehousing space under an existing land management contract. The development will be carried out over the next three years, and the decision to expand warehousing capacity is based on customer demand. The new investments are expected to yield a return of about 15 per cent, according to Agility.

“The value of the investment will be reflected on the company’s financial results over the period of development,” Al-Essa said in a statement at the time, without specifying how the company will finance the new development. 

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