(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Aramex on Wednesday said its second-quarter net profits climbed 14 per cent as its sales rose in the Gulf region and on acquisitions in Asia and Africa.
The global logistics and transportation solutions provider also reported healthy growth in revenues as it increased to Dh782 million, up 21 per cent compared to Dh648 million in the same period of 2011. The net profits rose to Dh64.4 million in second quarter compared to Dh56.5 million in the same quarter of 2011.
The Dubai-listed company said its total revenues for the first half of 2012 grew by 23 per cent to Dh1.528 billion from Dh1.243 billion in the first half of 2011. The first-half net profits increased to Dh125 million, a growth of 18 per cent over the Dh106 million achieved in the first six months of 2011.
"Despite the slowdown in the global economy, we continue to deliver strong results. We are obviously very happy with our revenue and net profit growth across all services", said Fadi Ghandour, Aramex's founder and chief executive.
"This is attributed to the very strong performance in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, whose economies continue to grow. Furthermore, our acquisitions in the past couple of years, in the emerging economies of South East Asia and Africa, continue to contribute significantly," said Ghandour, who will step down as Aramex CEO by end of 2012.
Aramex's operations in Egypt, one of its key global markets, continues to improve gradually since the beginning of the year, yet the outlook for the short to medium term remains unclear due to the economy's vulnerability to the political conditions in the country.
"The company is continuing its strategy to expand its global network through a number of acquisitions and greenfield operations in emerging growth markets in Africa, South East Asia and Central Asia," Ghandour said.
"While our strategic acquisitions in 2011 are bearing fruits with an increasing contribution to our global revenue, initial investments in our greenfield operations in Africa continue to weigh down on our immediate quarterly results and are expected to start contributing positively to our revenues by 2013. With that in mind, I am confident of our direction and performance for the rest of the year," he concluded.
The Aramex shares closed 0.57 per cent down at Dh1.73 before the results were announced. The stock has lost 3.9 per cent this year.
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