India's Delhivery posts first-ever profit on back of festive season demand

Mahindra Logistics

02/02/2024 12:21

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Indian logistics firm Delhivery
 DELH.NS  posted its first-ever quarterly profit since listing
on Friday, helped by healthy demand for online shopping during
the festive season.
    Consolidated profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 was
117.1 million rupees ($1.41 million) compared with a loss of
1.96 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in an
exchange filing.
    "We are satisfied that network quality remained robust even
through the peak season," said Sahil Barua, MD & CEO of the
Gurugram-based company.
    Analysts had said the company, which delivers orders for
Amazon  AMZN.O  and Walmart  WMT.N -owned Flipkart, would
achieve profit after tax break-even by the second half of fiscal
year 2025.
    Revenue from the company's express parcel services, which
contributes more than half to the total, climbed 21%
year-on-year.
    The company, which also operates the Part Truckload and
Truckload businesses, saw its total income rise 21% to 23.25
billion rupees.
    Total expenses were up 7.7%, with freight, handling and
servicing costs jumping 11.5%.
        Rival Blue Dart Express  BLDT.NS  reported a marginal
rise in quarterly profit last week, driven by a recovery in
demand during the festive season.
    Delhivery also approved a scheme of amalgamation for the
merger of its units Spoton Logistics and Spoton Supply Chain
Solutions into and with the company.
    Shares of Delhivery closed 0.9% up ahead of the results.


($1 = 82.8870 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru;Editing by Sohini
Goswami)
 ((aleefjahan.cs@thomsonreuters.com;))