Aramex second quarter net profit rises 30%

Revenues for the second quarter of 2009 reached
Dhs485m, a 10% drop from the Dhs539.3m registered during the same period in 2008.

The company continued to report an increase in net profits, amidst a challenging economic environment, reflecting the adaptability and resilience of its asset-light business model and its prudent cost management programmes.

The company's net profits for the first half of 2009 stood at Dhs93.1m, a growth of 25% over Dhs74.6m achieved in the first six months of 2008.

Revenues for the first half of 2009 stood at Dhs948.4m, a drop of 8% from Dhs1,033.7m registered in the same period in 2008. The decrease in revenues was primarily driven by a significant slowdown in global freight forwarding activity, which resulted in a drop of 22% in freight revenues across the network.

Meanwhile, led by increased revenues of the company's international and domestic express products, revenues in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region for the first six months of 2009 registered an increase of 6% over the same period last year.

"While the global economic slowdown continued to affect our revenue growth in this period, we maintained focus on operational cost efficiency and customisation capabilities to better adapt to customers' changing business needs," said Fadi Ghandour, founder and CEO of Aramex.

"This has enabled us to further improve our gross profit margins, control costs, and report an excellent net income growth.

"We continue to see, and benefit from, an accelerated trend among companies across the Gulf region towards outsourcing logistics services, driven by the need to restructure operational costs in the wake of current economic challenges."

Ghandour added:

"We see this as an ideal time for steady geographic expansion in key emerging countries, mainly in Africa and Central Asia, which we believe are underserved. We also remain committed to invest further in developing our logistics infrastructure across the GCC and the Levant."

Aramex's commitment to enriching its service offering to customers is evident in the recently launched Value Express service, which was developed to support the commercial sector in achieving greater cost efficiencies amidst current economic conditions.