India's Delhivery posts fourth-quarter profit as spends to attract demand pay off

Delhivery

16/05/2025 13:11

May 16 (Reuters) - Indian logistics services firm Delhivery DELH.NS reported a fourth-quarter profit on Friday, as higher spending to attract client demand paid off amid tough competition from e-commerce firms' pivot to in-house logistics.

The company's consolidated profit came in at 725.6 million rupees ($8.5 million) for January-March, compared to a loss of 684.7 million rupees a year earlier.

Revenue from operations rose 6% to 21.92 billion rupees, and while the company's freight handling and servicing spends rose 3%, cost control on other fronts kept its total expenses largely unchanged from last year.

For further earnings highlights, click nFWN3RO1P7

KEY CONTEXT

Cargo movers such as Delhivery have been spending more to attract clients and fend off intensifying competition, at a time when e-commerce firms such as Amazon AMZN.O, Walmart WMT.N-backed Flipkart and Meesho are increasing distribution through in-house logistics.

The expenditures paid off in attracting client demand, with Delhivery's core profit margin expanding to 12.2% from 11.5% a year earlier.

Volumes at Delhivery's express parcel business, which accounts for nearly 60% of overall revenue, grew 1% versus Elara Securities' estimate of 2%. This segment includes partnerships with Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
Estimates (next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
No. of analysts
Stock to price target**
Div yield (%)
Delhivery
DELH.NS
74.66
32.13
16.05
151.71
Buy
20
0.81
NULL
Mahindra Logistics
MALO.NS
43.95
6.50
15.35
-
Hold
10
0.95
0.80
Blue Dart Express
BLDT.NS
39.67
16.78
11.84
51.17
Buy
6
0.95
0.36
VRL Logistics
VRLL.NS
23.64
9.02
9.52
21.18
Strong Buy
9
0.80
0.97

* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 85.5240 Indian rupees

DELH Q4 https://tmsnrt.rs/4dt5OfN

 (Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)

 ((Hritam.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @MukherjeeHritam;))