Kuehne + Nagel produced revenue growth of 10.4% in the first 9 months of 2017. This was helped by a 14.9% year-on-year increase in Q3. EBITDA was up 2.8% in the first 9 months, and up 5.9% in Q3 comparisons.
Continued improvements were seen in its net earnings figure. After a drop in first quarter profits in Q1, and flat results after H1, year-to-date net earnings after Q3 were up 1.3% to CHF540m (€495m).
The forwarder produced strong volume growth overall, and it reported that “all business units recorded significant market share gains”.
In Airfreight, K+N increased volumes by 19.1% in year-to-date comparisons. Seafreight volumes were up 7.7% on the same basis. This helped grow revenues by 17.8% in Airfreight and 9.6% in Seafreight. However, costs also increased and profitability was less strong. EBITDA growth was just 3.8% for Airfreight and -8.5% in Seafreight.
There may be better news to come in these segments though. According to K+N, it started to see a GP/TEU margin recovery in its Seafreight business in Q3, its first margin improvement since Q4 of 2015. Meanwhile in Airfreight, the acquisition of Kenyan forwarder Trillvane and US-forwarder Commodity Forwarders International have not yet been included in results, and could potentially provide a boost in the next round of results.
Profitability was stronger in K+N’s Overland division. EBITDA was up 36.8% in year-to-date comparisons. This was despite a smaller increase in revenues, up 5.3%. K+N witnessed strong network traffic performances in both Europe and the US, and said its implementation of pharma projects had been a success.
The contract logistics segment also saw strong profitability gains, with EBITDA up 14.2%. Revenues were up 4.5%. It reported business growth in pharma and e-commerce fulfilment.
Source: Kuehne + Nagel
