India's Delhivery posts Q4 revenue drop on muted demand, high fuel costs

Delhivery

19/05/2023 14:00

BENGALURU, May 19 (Reuters) -    Indian logistics firm
Delhivery Ltd  DELH.NS  on Friday reported a 9.1% drop in its
fourth quarter total income, hurt by subdued demand and elevated
fuel costs.
    The company's consolidated total income fell to 19.34
billion rupees ($236.5 million) for the quarter ended March 31,
from 21.27 billion rupees a year ago.
    The delivery firm has seen growth slow from highs recorded
during the first few quarters of the pandemic, when people
shopped for everything from home goods to apparel online. It is
also reeling under the pressure of high fuel costs.
    Its cross-border services business saw a decline in revenue,
despite healthy volumes, hurt by falling global yields in both
air and ocean freight and volume impact of the Chinese New Year
holidays, the company said in a statement.
    Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization (EBITDA) margin contracted to 0.3% in the quarter,
compared to 3.9% a year earlier. However, it turned positive
sequentially after reporting a negative margin of 3.7% in the
previous quarter.
    Consolidated net loss widened to 1.59 billion rupees from
1.20 billion rupees a year ago, according to an exchange filing,
continuing its streak of consecutive losses since its initial
public offering in May 2022.
    "Delhivery has aggressive infrastructure and capability
expansion plans in place and is confident of the strong start in
April and first half of May, continuing through the year,”
Managing Director & CEO Sahil Barua said.
    Peer Blue Dart Express Ltd  BLDT.NS  earlier this month saw
a near 50% drop in fourth-quarter profit, hurt by higher
expenses.
    Shares of Delhivery closed 1.16% lower ahead of the results.
The stock rose 0.1% in the March-quarter.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Priya Sagar in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
 ((Priya.Sagar@thomsonreuters.com;))