European division weighs down Mainfreight Q1 result
Profit fell to $12.4 million, or 12.5 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30.
Bedding in European operations has taken a toll on Mainfreight’s bottom line for the first quarter of the year – as net profit fell 15% to $12.4 million.
The global trucking and logistics company had warned the result would be impacted by trading conditions and customer losses after the acquisition of Dutch-based freight forwarder Wim Bosman, which has under-performed to date.
“It is expected that the poor performance from our European operations will continue through the first half of our financial year until the European summer holiday season is behind us, and new customer revenue is trading fully,” managing director Don Braid said.
In other markets financial performance improved.
Total revenue for the three months to June 30 increased by 3.4% to $465.02 million. Stripping out foreign exchange effects, this represents an increase of 6.7%.
With the European division taken out, sales improved 9.7% over the quarter.
The company’s New Zealand unit boosted EBITDA to $11.29 million – up 12.2% on the same time last year.
Forsyth Barr head of research Rob Mercer was looking for a strong first-quarter result from Mainfreight – driven by double-digit growth from its Australasian domestic freight business and improvements from Mainfreight USA.
Mainfreight shares are trading at $9.20.
Georgina Bond
Thu, 09 Aug 2012
Thu, 09 Aug 2012
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European division weighs down Mainfreight Q1 result
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