Mainfreight has announced record results for the financial year ending March 31, 2017. Its net profit after tax and before abnormal items reached NZ*$103.16m. This increase of 17.0% year-over-year represents the first time its net profits have exceeded $100m. EBITDA also hit record levels at NZ$197.5m, up 13.0% year-over-year. Revenues meanwhile grew 2.1% to NZ$2.33bn. Excluding foreign exchange rate fluctuations, this represented a 5.1% increase.
The overall positive results were caused by strength in New Zealand, Australia and Europe. In domestic currency terms, these saw revenue growth of 8.2%, 6.3% and 10.3% respectively. EBITDA in these areas grew 17.2%, 23.7% and 20.8% respectively. In New Zealand and Australia, high growth was caused by an increase in domestic transport and logistics volumes. In Europe meanwhile, Mainfreight said growth had come from all major divisions.
Mainfreight conceded that Asian and American operations had produced poorer than expected results. In the Americas, its largest market, revenues decreased by 4.7% and EBITDA fell 0.6%, partly as a result of difficulties at CaroTrans, its NVOCC subsidiary. Mainfreight announced that a leadership change had been initiated. Poor onboarding quality of domestic freight at Mainfreight USA also contributed to a slightly weaker financial year.
In Asia, despite positive revenue growth (prior to inter-company revenue eliminations, total revenue increased 7.3%), EBITDA fell 1.6%. This was due to deteriorating air export volumes and additional costs incurred to develop a Hong Kong warehouse opportunity. This site will be closed in mid-2017.
Source: Mainfreight
*NZ$=$0.71/NZ$=€0.65
