Aramex net profit increases 28%

Dubai: Aramex, logistics and transportation solutions provider, Saturday announced that its net profits for the fourth quarter surged to Dh49.5 million, from Dh38.8 million, a 28 per cent growth from the corresponding period in 2008.

Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 were Dh524.8 million, a 5 per cent increase over Dh500.5 million posted for the same period in 2008, the company said in a press release.

The fourth quarter was the first quarter in 2009 to witness positive revenue growth, marking a bottoming out of the preceding revenue decline.

Aramex continues to maintain a very healthy balance sheet with a cash balance of Dh502 million as of December 31, 2009, coupled with an extremely low debt-to-equity ratio of 1.4 per cent. Aramex's strong cash position is ideally placed to support the company's dev-elopment and expansion plans for 2010.

Aramex's full year revenues for 2009 dropped by 6 per cent to Dh1.96 billion, compared to Dh2.08 billion for 2008. However the company's net profit grew during the year 25 per cent to Dh184.3 million, compared to Dh147.3 million for 2008. This growth was driven by a substantial improvement in net profit margins, which surged from 7.1 per cent in 2008 to 9.4 per cent in 2009. "Throughout 2009, we were consistent in delivering solid performance while maintaining our employee base and without the need to restructure," Fadi Ghandour, founder and CEO of Aramex, said in a statement. "Our performance is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit and hard work of our people who went out there as a team to reinforce Aramex's position in the market, negotiate favourable deals with suppliers, innovate new solutions, and create lasting partnerships with our customers.

"In 2010, we will continue to broaden our investments and expansion in emerging markets such as those in Africa, Southeast Asia and CIS countries by partnering with strategic local companies, as we did recently in Sri Lanka and Oman. We will also remain focused on strengthening our capabilities in third party logistics services to meet the increasing demand as outsourcing trends continue in our core markets," he said.