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Dubai-listed logistics firm Aramex has seen falling year-on-year (YoY) profits, which it attributed to the post-COVID-19 return to in-person shopping and exchange rate impacts.
The company reported a profit of AED 44.6 million ($12.4 million) in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 32%, due to write-offs from discontinued technologies and “other one offs.”
Profit for the first half of 2022 were AED 91.9 million, down from AED 102.6 million in the first half of 2021, which Aramex attributed to softer revenues, and partial impact from the exchange rate for the Lebanese and Egyptian pounds.
CEO Othman Aljeda said e-commerce revenue had softened globally as consumers returned to shopping in person post-COVID-19.
“We are also seeing rising inflation rates globally, which puts downward pressure on discretionary spending.
“Going forward, our focus is on quality earnings and better efficiencies, by optimising resources, and strengthening our end-to-end product and service offering across courier, freight, logistics, warehousing, and supply chain.”
Revenue fell to AED 1.52 billion in Q2 from AED 1.57 billion year-on-year in Q2. It reached AED 2.97 billion in the first half of 2022, down YoY from AED 2.99 billion.
Aramex split its business in two, creating Aramex Express, handling business-to-consumer (B2C) operations and Aramex Logistics, to serve business to business (B2B), in September last year.
Aljeda said the company had seen a “star performance” from its freight-forwarding and logistics business, offsetting industry headwinds to its courier business.
Freight forwarding revenue reached AED 544.1 million in Q2, a 24% YoY increase, while revenue from its courier business fell by 15% to AED 936 million.
Aramex announced the acquisition of e-commerce logistics company MyUS in June, which Aljeda said was expected to be completed during Q3.
(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Daniel Luiz)
