TCI Express Q3 PAT rises 36% to Rs 26 cr

Logistics provider TCI Express on Monday reported a 36.4 per cent surge in its profit after tax at Rs 26 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

The company had clocked Rs 19 crore PAT (profit after tax) in the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.

The company in a statement said it has come out with a "resilient Financial Performance with 2.1 per cent Income and 36.4 per cent PAT (profit after tax) growth in Q3 FY2020".

The company has registered 2 per cent growth in revenue from operations during the quarter under review at Rs 268 crore as against Rs 263 crore in the year-ago quarter, it said.

"I am pleased to report that TCI Express has delivered a resilient performance in the quarter despite a weak macroeconomic environment impacting major sectors of the economy...The Company delivered an EBITDA of Rs 35 crores, growth of 11.2 per cent and margins expanded by 107 bps to 13.1 per cent during the same period...The revenue growth was driven primarily by increase in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) customers. The margin improvement is a result of operational efficiency initiatives and better working capital management," its MD Chander Agarwal said.

He said the company continued to expand its geographical presence and has opened 10 new branches in the quarter.

"The objective is to increase penetration in metro cities .... During the quarter, we implemented various initiatives to improve operational efficiency which resulted in higher capacity utilisation and operational cost reduction," he said.

The company said construction of its new sorting centre at Gurgaon was on halt due to NGT order but now the construction is back on track and it expects both of its new sorting centres to commence commercial operations from the second quarter of next fiscal year.

The domestic economy in the third quarter of FY2020 continued to face slowdown due to weakening industrial activity across sectors, and tighter credit conditions in the non-banking sector also resulted in the weakening of domestic demand and subdued private consumption, it added.

"Along with economic slowdown, Logistics the sector also saw moderation due to political disturbance and protest in North and Eastern region. We are hopeful that the government in its upcoming budget will introduce a major stimulus package to revive manufacturing, address low consumption demand and support MSME's to improve overall business confidence," Agarwal said.

TCI Express is a delivery provider and with its 800 offices covering more than 40,000 locations.